The effect of role modelling in medical education is frequently mentioned in the literature. This study addresses the issue of role modelling directly through questionnaires to students and interviews with practitioners. A sample of general practitioners taking students on the general practice attachment were asked to identify the attributes of their own role models, and to nominate in turn what attributes they hoped to role model for their students, and students returning from attachment were asked what they wished to emulate in their GP. Analysis of transcripts and questionnaires showed that while GPs mainly remembered personality and teaching ability in their role models, there was congruence between their desire to model good patient relationships to students and students' perceptions that this was the most desirable attribute they saw in GPs. Students also wished to be as skilled and knowledgeable as their GPs. The paper speculates about reasons for the differences and similarities in perception and memory of desirable role model attributes nominated by GPs and by students. It concludes that affect pervades the memory of positive and negative behaviours and attitudes of teachers, and that although role modelling may not be amenable to measurement, its importance in shaping behaviour and attitude and its power to influence students should be acknowledged in developmental programmes for medical teachers.
What's well begun, is half done." Horace. Abstract.Concern is often expressed about the underrepresentation of women in scientific and technological programmes in higher education. This concern prompted us to undertake a study of Australian computing science courses at the top level of professional accreditation. Our concern was with the numbers of women enrolling and how women fared in the early stages of the courses. The work from our study provides the basis for this paper in which we examine the ways in which women tend to be disadvantaged in computing courses. We discuss the issues both in terms of factors which are identifiable from the perspective of the discipline at large and those which are associated specifically with the presentation of courses within institutions of higher education. At the discipline level we discuss the apparent technology-centredness of computing, the emphasis accorded mathematics as well as narrow problem solving skills and the undervaluing of broadly based problem solving and communication skills. In the institutional context, our concerns lie with the consequences of gender stereotyping on attitudes and interactions, the significance of prior computing knowledge and experience as well as of mathematical background, and the way the curriculum is structured and organised.
With the widespread clinical use of sonography there is a need to introduce the topic into the curriculum. A new problem-based course in clinical sonography without lectures was developed to emphasise experiential learning, and engage students actively in individual and collective acts of discovery. Four different approaches were used to deliver the new course to 141 veterinary medical students over four semesters. The physical principles of sonography were taught by computer-assisted instruction and a practical class, clinical examinations were introduced during a session with a tutor, and finally each student wrote an essay on a sonographic topic of their choice. To evaluate the new course, students' responses to a questionnaire were analyzed. Students gained reasonable understanding of the physical principles of sonography and had some confidence in conducting a sonographic examination of an animal. Of most use to student learning was discussion with the teachers. Surprisingly, half the students thought the topic should also be taught by lectures. The students learned the material and acquired the sonographic skills through processes which required more independence and self-responsibility than traditional teaching methods. The teachers' interaction with students on an individual basis, as they encountered individual problems, was the most important resource in learning about sonography. The continued request for lectures suggests an insecurity in some students caught between two different paradigms of teaching and learning (experiential, problem-based learning versus lectures).
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