It’s so nice to announce good news!!  Congratulations to the following colleagues who will be conducting these important, interesting, and ambitious Collaborative SoTL projects funded by the TransCanada Collaborative Research Program:

Journalism Identity Study, Phase 2
Collaborative Research Team: Amanda Williams, Victoria Guglietti, Sally Haney (Journalism)

This project represents Phase 2 of a collaborative investigation examining the central research question: How do students form a concept of themselves as journalists throughout their undergraduate journalism degree program? In Phase 1 of the investigation, the research team completed a thematic analysis of more than 90 semi-guided student reflections gathered in all four years of the journalism program at Mount Royal University. The study not only revealed what student journalists were saying about their experiences, it also informed the research team’s decision to proceed with the second leg of the study. In Phase 2 of the investigation, the research team is using a narrative approach to guide qualitative interviews with several study participants. Given the privileged place that “stories” holds in the discipline, the interviews will be conducted with students as a means of understanding their identity vis-à-vis their stories. It is expected that by gaining a better appreciation of how students understand themselves in their journeys through the journalism program and in the context of their views of journalism, journalism educators will be in a better position to develop constructive pedagogical interventions that address points of anxiety, stress, disjuncture or frustration in the identity formation process. One or two student research assistants will be employed on this project to assist with analyzing the interviews using qualitative methods and presenting the findings at a conference.

Student Experience and Impact of Clinical Presentations in the Athletic Therapy Curriculum
Collaborative Research Team: Mark Lafave, Kjatija Westbrook, Dennis Valdez, Breda Eubank, Jenelle McAllister (Health and Physical Education); Michelle Yeo (Academic Development Centre)

Competency-based education in medical and allied healthcare professions has become accepted as commonplace. The Athletic Therapy program at Mount Royal University has undergone a transformation from a more traditional delivery method to one that employs a clinical presentation (CP) model of competency-based education. A CP model of curriculum is similar to problem-based learning (PBL) delivery whereby clinical cases or diagnoses are central to the teaching and learning process. A CP model is unique from PBL in that students are taught to think more like experts, whereby both inductive and deductive reasoning approaches are employed. Specifically, students are taught schemata that are employed by experts to evaluate, diagnose, manage, and treat various neurological and orthopedic-related conditions or CPs. A schemata is essentially a cognitive script and process that expert uses to help evaluate, manage and treat injuries or conditions. Experts employ schemata subconsciously and thus, it is important to make what is happens seamlessly and implicitly for them more explicit to the student. Metaphorically, it is like teaching students to use a road map to get from one point to another. We have completed research that identified 253 CPs that should be part of an undergraduate curriculum. Ideally, if students understand the 253 CPs, it should lead to a competent Athletic Therapist upon graduation. The proposed research aims to determine if the CP model of competency-based education effectively teaches students to be ‘competent,’ as intended. Furthermore, understanding the student experience with these clinical presentations help describe a learning curve in AT. A student Research Assistant will contribute substantially to this project by assisting with data collection, analysis and dissemination of findings.