Showing papers on "Professional development published in 1974"

Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness

Abstract: Perface. One: Theory. 1. Theories of Action. 2. Evaluating Theories of Action. Two: Action. 3. Diagnosing Theories-in-Use. 4. Model I. 5. Model II. 6. Transition from Model I to Model II. 7. Learining Model-II Behavior. Three: Practice. 8. Issues in Professional Education. 9. Implications for Professional Competence and Practice. 10. Redesigning Professional Education. NotesReferencesIndex.

Teaching medical students interactional skills. A research-based course in the doctor-patient relationship.

Abstract: To teach first-year medical students to communicate and interact with patients more effectively, we designed and evaluated a course that uses recent developments in communication technics. The students' goals included identification of selected doctor–patient interactions, recognition and description of their feelings and reactions to the interview, and learning new ways of responding in the interview setting. The student requires no prior knowledge of clinical medicine but gains actual interview experience. Instructors are trained to use uniform teaching strategies. By pre-course and post-course testing and by evaluating videotaped interviews, we have examined behavioral changes in student performance as a function of the course. The results indicate that students become more aware of their responses to patients and their impact on the doctor–patient relationship. They also learn to use new types of responses and behaviors with patients. (N Engl J Med 290:1232–1237, 1974)

A Research Replication. The Reputations of American Professional Schools.

Abstract: part of our research program on organizational structures, we published in this magazine the names of the top five professional schools in each of seventeen professional fields (see "America's Leading Professional Schools, " November 1973). These data were based on the collective judgment of the deans in each of these fields of study who responded to questionnaires sent to them by the Comparative Organization Research Program at Columbia University. The data, as published, received a great deal of attention, which continues to this day. National media quoted the Change article, and it has been widely discussed at conferences. As we expected, not all of this reaction was favorable. Indeed, some of it turned out to be highly critical of our inquiry, and we felt professionally compelled to review our research and replicate part of it with a wider data base. The major criticism of our work focused on several points that deserve reviewing here. One group of critics categorically oppose ranking schools. Such rankings, they think, engender invidious comparisons and hurt many good schools that may not be at the very top in their field, particularly in a period when it is difficult to obtain much-needed financial resources. But this view sees the results of such rankings only from the standpoint of schools and their administrators and not from the perspective of their publics, especially prospective students and employees, who have a stake in knowing how schools compare in quality and reputation. Educators themselves expressed great interest as "consumers" in the rankings we published. After all, professional schools do differ in quality, and these differences concern people becoming affiliated with them. We think that providing information about such differences is a public service. A second criticism of our work was that it did not furnish information on the quality of professional schools, since the rankings were based on the judgment of deans and not on objective measures of quality. As one critic put it, "These are just the opinions of a bunch of deans. " Ideally, one ought to measure the quality of a professional school, of course, by its achievementsthe caliber of its alumni and its contributions to the advancement of

Evaluating health care.

Abstract: Evaluation of health care is equated with the intent to continuously improve rather than to control its quality. Quality is seen as being affected by and therefore embracing 1) patient's health status and attitudes on entry to care, 2) suitability of the delivery machinery (structure), 3) application of care (process), and 4) outcomes of application to care. It is suggested that analysis in depth at two points of this paradigm, the entry to care and the outcomes of care, are the most likely to reveal the basis of failures. These may largely reside with the patient, the health care delivery structure, or the inability of the patient and care deliverer to perform together appropriately. These suggest the kind of interventions most likely to provide good results in the future. Such interventions or changes are very likely to call for significant changes in many social institutions, including that of the health care delivery machinery. Focusing on process is seen as contributing to professional education but less likely to result in meaningful changes because it works on the assumption that what the professional in a given illness cycle offers is the main factor in achieving better quality care.

Professional Obsolescence: Implications for Continuing Professional Education

Abstract: This paper describes and illustrates the utility of the Content- Based Group-Assessment Model for developing programs of con tinuing professional education. The model provides a generalized and systematic procedure for assessing the educational needs of a defined group of practitioners and for translating the identified needs into knowledge areas which can form the basis for develop ing continuing education programs. A recent study of physical educators is used to demonstrate the potential utility of the model in developing curricular programs for that group of professionals.

Determinants of a Professional Self-Concept Among Graduate Students.

Abstract: The rise cupational effort to a distinct of subcultures social tradition scientists and of research their to impact understand on "professional on individuals the nature socialization." has of given occupational subcultures and their impact on individuals has given rise to a distinct tradi io of r search o r fessional soc alization." In particular, this tradition has focused on independent variables that facilitate the development of a "professional self-concept." This study is concerned with the socialization of graduate teaching assistants (hereafter referred to as TA's). While most of the research in this area has dealt with socialization to relatively homogeneous professional roles, the academic profession is a relatively heterogeneous mixture of scientific and scholarly disciplines. Thus, one goal of this study is to see whether or not the conclusions of previous research are borne out in the more amorphous context of graduate school.

Instructional Development in Canadian Higher Education

Abstract: Canadian universities and colleges are in the forefront of worldwide efforts by educational institutions to improve the quality of teaching and learning. This striving for improvement, very simply, is what instructional development means. The idea of instructional development appears in different contexts. It sometimes has the connotation of staff development. This would be an incomplete definition, because it is not always the skills and knowledge of the teaching staff that require attention. Other parts of the educational process can be implicated, such as the quality of instructional materials, the physical plant, or the relative value placed on teaching by the institution. Another topic which frequently turns up in the same sentence with instructional development is evaluation. This may be the evaluation of students' learning, of instructors' teaching, or both. Again, instructional development activities at a particular institution may or may not include these. Evaluation and staff development are examples, important examples, of instructional development. The question that universities and colleges have to answer is how they will provide for instructional development. Some leave it to chance. Some set up committees or ask a seemingly appropriate unit such as a counselling service to operate workshops. A few assign an individual coordinating responsibilities. These individuals are sometimes senior academic officers, sometimes specialists such as Staff Development Officer or Director of Pedagogical Services. Finally, a growing number of institutions have established pedagogical service units, of various sizes, charged with relatively broad ranges of instructional development activities. Audiovisual and media centres are usually excluded from definitions of instructional development. Their exclusion might be only partly justifiable, but it is based on the degree of initiative exercised by the centre in carrying out its mandate. Media centres tend to be exclusively responsive to requests. Although they will frequently counsel an instructor about the appropriateness of a medium he or she has selected, in general if the instructor wants slides (or whatever) and provides an active account number, slides will be produced. Instructional development centres are also designed to be responsive