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- Lindberg, Viveca, 1954-, et al.
(author)
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Characteristics of dental note taking : a material based themed analysis of Swedish dental students
- 2020
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In: BMC Medical Education. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1472-6920. ; 20
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: The transition from upper secondary to higher education and from higher education to professional practice requires that students adapt to new literacy practices, academic and professional. However, there is a gap of knowledge regarding literacy practices in dental education. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify what characterizes dental students’ notetaking and secondarily to determine what dental students express regarding their notetaking.Methods: To analyze students’ perspectives about the purposes of notetaking and to examine their written notes in depth, three volunteer students, out of the 24 students that voluntarily and anonymously handed in their notes, were interviewed. The three undergraduate dental students that participated in this material-based, semi-structured interview study, framed within a New Literacy Studies approach, were on their third year (6th semester). The focus of these material-based interviews was on each student’s notes. Questions prepared for semi-structured interviews were open-ended and allowed for individual follow-up questions related to the interviewee’s answer. To analyze the outcome of the interviews a thematic analysis was used.Results: From the material-based interviews eight themes that relate to what, how and for what purpose students write were discerned. These eight themes include professional vocabulary, core content as well as clinical examples that belong to what students read and write; multimodal accentuation as well as synthesis that belong to how students read and write; and mnemonic strategies, academic purposes, and professional purposes that belong to for what purpose students read and write.Conclusions: Findings from the interviews indicate that the digital development, offering a variety of available tools, has expanded the notion of notetaking. This study identified that dental students’ notetaking has changed during their education from initially being synchronous, to also include multimodal and asynchronous writing, making notetaking more of a writing practice. Further, students’ writing practices seem to be motivated by their knowledge formation in relation to a subject matter, but also in relation to their experiences during clinical training. Although, our hypothesis was that the main purpose of notetaking and writing was to pass their course examinations, this study showed that students that were half-way through their dental education, are aware that literacy practices are for learning for their future profession, and not only for passing their exams.
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- Lindberg, Viveca, 1954-, et al.
(author)
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Higher education for professional and/or academic literacy?
- 2019
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- As in other professional programmes within academia, part of the learning outcomes relates to content like anatomy and physiology, others relate to tools, and materials used for dental work and their properties – in everyday terminology the ‘theoretical’ aspects of dental work. Other learning outcomes relate to what a dentist does – the ‘practical’ (clinical) aspects of dental knowledge. Aspects of these are both understanding patient needs, hands-on-skills, being able to construct an anamnesis and explain oral conditions, treatment need and prognosis (Kurz, Draper & Silverman, 2016). Furthermore, as becoming a dentist requires attending an educational programme, reading and writing, i.e. literacy competences, are seen as self-evident aspects of contemporary education. While it seems obvious that it takes time to become a skilled dentist and a degree is the necessary beginning in this direction, it seems less obvious that it also takes time to become a skilled writer in academia. But future dentists not only examine or repair their clients’ teeth. Part of a dentist’s everyday work is also to document examinations and treatment, prescribe medicines, but also to communicate with other professionals about clients that may need complementary or specialist treatment. Transition from higher education to work requires that students can cope also with the literacy practices of the profession. Studies with this focus show that although a person may be a successful student, (s)he isn’t necessarily well acquainted with the kinds of literacy demands that (s)he will encounter when entering the world of work (Ask, 2017; Dias et al., 1999). Since the 1980s there has been a growing interest in literacy practices, that is, what people read and write in specific activities, how people are expected to read and write (what qualifies as an acceptable text) and for what purposes representatives for the activity read and write. Our focus is on literacy practices in professional higher education, since these prepare for professional as well as for academic writing. On the one hand, students in professional higher education write as part of their studies, but part of professional higher education there also is a practicum or clinical part (what this part is called varies between programmes). During this part students also write, but the purpose for writing is not necessarily the same.The issue for this paper is firstly, to analyse one of the Swedish dental programmes in relation to its design in relation to possible content of relevance for academic and professional literacy, and secondly to explore the literacy practices of the first two modules of a course, specifically from the perspective of students: what do they read and write, how do they read the texts related to this module, how do they write, and what purposes do they express for their reading and writing?In Sweden previous research concerns professional education for engineers (Hållsten, 2008; Berthén, Eriksson & Lindberg, 2006), teachers (Ask, 2007; Blåsjö 2007) and policemen (Ask, 2014). Furthermore, the academic literacy has been studied by Blåsjö (2004) and (Hagström 2005). Our study aligns with the theoretical framings for such studies – text-cultures (Bazerman, 1995), the New Literacy Tradition (NLS) (Street, 2003) with specific focus on literacy in higher education (Jones, Turner & Street, 1999; Lea & Street, 1998, 2006) as well as literacy at work (Barton, Hamilton & Ivanič, 2000). Activity theory has also been used by e.g. Dias and Freedman (1999) in relation to professional higher education and corresponding work (see also Engeström, 1998).Methods/methodologyIn line with studies framed by NLS, ethnographic mapping of literacy events - what students read or wrote, and text-related communication (Barton 2007; Karlsson 2006; Street 2003) informed the data produced. They comprise of the following:Formal documents: the curriculum for the study programme in dentistry as well as the curriculum for the modules Orofacial pan and jaw function 1 and 2 Course literature (recommended however not compulsory): Jeffrey P Okeson (Ed.) (2013). Management of temporomandibular disorders and occlusion. 7th Ed. St. Louis: Mosby. The book is on 488 pages (of which approx. 100 pages consist of references). Of the 68 students, 16 bought the book. Teaching material: hand-outs (copies of lecturers’ power-points) to students. Power-points for all lectures are based on core content from the book. Students' notes (N=10), all anonymised. In total, 68 students attended the modules. The group pf students was informed about the study and or interest in having copies of their notes but that participation was voluntary.Audio-recordings of the lectures (N=8) – permission given by the two teachers – with the microphone placed close to the teacher. The audio-recordings were complemented by field-notes from one or two researchers attending each lectureMultiple-choice tests and students’ results (although not used for this paper).Complementary to the multiple-choice test there were three mandatory clinical skills demonstrations. For the clinical skills demonstration, no documentation was demanded of the students. The teacher filled in a template for each student, based on observation of students’ performances.Video-recorded, material based thematic interviews with students. During one of the final lectures, students were asked if they could consider being interviewed based on their notes from the lectures. All three student that registered were interviewed. The video recording focused only on students’ notes and their hands, the main point with this procedure was to capture if and when a student pointed at some specific part of their notes.Data was processed and analysed in the following steps: The formal documents were read in order to identify parts of the programme and curricula were academic and/or professional literacy was likely to occur. For this part, the dental researchers in the group necessary. Secondly, the teaching material provided by the two teachers (hand-outs of their Power-point presentations) were compared to students’ notes in order to identify what kinds of notes students made. Thirdly, the interviews with students about their were analysed (this part is still in progress).Expected outcomes/preliminary results/implications The analysis of the programme showed that there, in principle, are several options for addressing both academic and professional literacy. During the first semester the curriculum indicates that students are expected to read academic articles. Attention should be paid both to the content and the structures of these articles. During the following semesters, professional literacy is focused in terms of communication with clients, colleagues and teams of various professions, but also written documentation for various professional purposes. From the sixth semester, academic writing is introduced. In parallel, more complex professional communication and documentation becomes part of the curriculum.The analysis of students’ notes was performed by two researchers, one specialized in dentistry and the other in pedagogy, for reasons of double-control. Both researchers had participated in data collection and observation of lectures. This analysis was developed and tried out based on randomly selected notes from one student before the main analysis of all student texts. The initial analytical template of the student texts was then compared to the main analysis, and the congruency was satisfactory. We found that some students took notes in hand-writing, while others took digital notes. In relation to what was noted, we found three types of notes: 1) copied text from teachers’ power-points, 2) re-formulated text in teachers’ power-points, and 3) written complementing text. The amount of each type pf notes was then estimated and patterns of the three types of notes (copied, re-formulated, or complementary) for each student were mapped and patterns were then constructed into profiles for students’ note-taking. The result of this analysis was used for developing some of the questions for the thematic interviews with students. Preliminary findings of the interviews show that students are aware of professional as well as of academic writing throughout the programme.
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- Lindberg, Viveca, 1954-, et al.
(author)
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Literacy as part of professional knowing in a Swedish dental education
- 2021
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In: BMC Medical Education. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1472-6920. ; 21:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Academic reading and writing are seen as self-evident literacy competences in most contemporary higher educations, however, whether students also are introduced to professional literacy of relevance for dentistry during their education is a question. The purpose of this study is to analyze one of the Swedish dental programmes, with respect to its design, in relation to possible content of relevance for academic and professional literacy. Secondarily, to identify and analyze Swedish dental students’ writing in an academic setting, i.e. what these students are expected to read and write, and how they write.Methods: Data, for this ethnographically inspired case-study, was produced by observations and audio-recordings of lectures, copies of teachers’ handouts and of volunteering students’ notes, and a multiple-choice-test. Dataanalysis was made in five steps, starting with macro-level data, i.e. curriculum and syllabuses, followed by the syllabuses for the two observed modules, the teacher-provided material, analysis of the students’ notes, while in the fifth and final step, the results from the previous steps were compared, to find patterns of what students were expected to read and write, and what in the teacher-provided multimodal material that was emphasized in teachers’ talk.Results: This study showed that students were engaged in several types of literacy events, such as reading, finding and watching videos on their learning platform, writing, and following instructions. The study also showed that there is a recurrent academic content comprised of anatomy, physiology and pathology, while the professional content comprised of patient communication and anamnesis. Further, an integrated content was found and was initiated in teacher-constructed PowerPoints and by student-questions. Note-taking patterns varied between individual students, but the general pattern for this group of students were the use of complementary notes. This type of note-taking was used to make available further descriptions of the teacher-constructed text in PowerPoints, but also an independent text describing pictures shown on teachers’ PowerPoints or the blackboard.Conclusion: Findings from the present study reveal that students either copy text from teachers’ PowerPoint-slides, re-formulate text from teachers’ PowerPoint-slides, or write complementing text to teachers’ PowerPoint-slides. Further, the students individually choses type of note-taking based on situation. The study also revealed that the academic literacy – in the two modules during the fifth and sixth semesters of a dental education analyzed – mainly has a professional basis for reading, writing, and communication purposes. The study also showed that academic and professional literacy are closely connected through recurrent integration.
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- Lindberg, Viveca, 1954-, et al.
(author)
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Literacy as Part of Professional Knowing in Dental Education
- 2018
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The issue of this paper to scrutinise Swedish dental students’ writing in academic setting: what these students are expected to read and write, how they are expected to do this, and for what purposes they read and write.Dental education is one of several professional programmes in higher education. The national learning outcomes stated in the Higher Education Ordinance (SFS 1993:100- SFS 2017:284) point out for example the importance of knowledge of the scientific basis as well as of proven experience for dental work, the capability of making diagnoses aw well as treating various dental diseases and malformations, but also leadership and collaboration. Such learning outcomes obviously are abstract, as they coven a whole program of 300 ECTS, and are to be somewhat more concretized in syllabuses for the various courses that together form the programme. However, as in other professional programmes within academia, part of the learning outcomes relate to content like physiology and neurology, others relate to tools, and materials used for dental work and their properties – in everyday terminology the ‘theoretical’ aspects of dental work. Other learning outcomes relate to what a dentist does – the ‘practical’ (clinical) aspects of dental knowledge. Furthermore, as becoming a dentist requires attending an educational programme, reading and writing are seen as self-evident aspects of the education. While it seems obvious that it takes time to become a skilled dentist and a degree is the necessary beginning in this direction, it seems less obvious that it also takes time to become a skilled writer in academia – where the meaning of being a skilled writer varies between disciplines (Bazerman, 1995; Blåsjö, 2004; Hjalmarsson et al. 2017; Lea & Street 1998; Airey 2011). Being a student in any higher education assumes participating in an activity that to a large extent is literacy based. To have the literacy competences and strategies needed for educational activities are crucial resources for students – these are the means for coping with literacy demands in varying but relevant situations, depending on the purpose of reading and or writing (Bazerman 1995; Dias et al. 1999; Berthén et al. 2006; Street, 2003). For students in professional programmes, there is also another aspect – today part of a dentist professional work is literacy-related: documentation of work done, reports, subscriptions, referrals – these are one type of examples of what dentists are expected to write as part of their work. Other types of writing that today are imposed on most professions, be they academic or not, are related to quality control, sustainability and security (Lindberg, 2003). Previous studies show that the transition from upper secondary school to higher education is challenging for students (Ask 2007), since the literacy practices they have experiences of differ from those they encounter in academia. Appropriating relevant academic literacies is relational – i.e. students of course need to struggle but it is also a question of what is made available to them (Edwards 2005). Characteristic for of academic literacies, whether in science (Airey 2011); engineering (Berthén et al. 2006; Hållsten 2008); in history or national economy (Blåsjö 2004), is that students nee to master different genres (a breadth), but also a progression, in terms of complexity, in order to become successful within a programme or a discipline. So the overarching question for this paper is what literacy practices that characterise one of the Swedish dental programmes? MethodThe present study is conducted during the third year of the study programme in dentistry (SPD), during the modules “orofacial pain and jaw function 1 and 2”, at the Department of Dental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. The SPD has a duration of five years (300 credits) divided into 10 semesters. Each of the 10 semesters is composed by courses and the courses in modules. The third year consist of the fifth and sixth semesters. The modules “orofacial pain and jaw function 1 and 2” are closely connected with each other and are divided into two modules due to the semester break. The data analysed for this paper are modules part of the courses ”clinical odontology 2 and 3. For the overall project, the data produced are of three types: (i) curricular documents, including information given in study guides to the students; (ii) ethnographic data from lectures and clinical work (sound-recordings and field-notes during lectures, textbooks, hand-outs from the lectures, student notes from the given lectures, multiple-choice questions from the digital examination and clinical instructions); as well as (iii) interviews with students and teachers. Literacy events, i.e. what students read or write, and text-related communication (Barton 2007; Karlsson 2006; Street 2003) are mapped throughout all activities (lectures, clinical work, and examinations). During clinical work, only field-notes were taken and only one of the researchers that also were teachers in the programme took the notes since clinical work also involves patients. As a first step of the analysis, we use literacy event for identifying patterns related to text genres (Barton 2007; Street, 2003), and will pay attention to multimodal aspects (Airey 2011; Kress 2003) of text used and produced. The second step is to analyse relations between patterns, i.e. questions like What literacy practices characterize dental education? Which of these patterns are related to dental academic literacy practices, and which are related to professional dental literacy practices? Since data produced so far are from the first phase of the project, this is how far we have come.Expected OutcomesAs some of the data production will continue during spring, we have so far concentrated on the mapping of literacy events (step 1 in the analysis), which mainly is a descriptive result. During lectures, powerpoints were used for structuring the physiological knowledge related to orofacial pain and jaw function. All slides were distributed in advance to the students via the digital learning environment used by KI. Most slides were multimodal in that they combined graphical pictures of neurological and physiological information related to the construction of a jaw and the different functions of the parts, highlighting aspects specifically related to orofacial pain. Students’ notes vary: while some made notes directly in the powerpoint, others took notes separately. During clinical work, students were given forms to fill in with the purpose of two types of documentation: medical and narrative. The analytic result will complement this descriptive result.
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