training in education journal

MINI REVIEW article

Professional development of teacher trainers: the role of teaching skills and knowledge.

• School of Marxism, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, China

Since the 1990s, the essential function of teacher trainers in academic courses has gradually attained more attention from scholars. Also, the teacher trainers’ professional development has acquired worldwide attraction following the concept that teacher trainers are deeply liable for educator education quality. The present mini-review of literature indicates that while teacher trainers have several complicated functions, they obtain the least preparation or opportunities for professional development to perform such functions. Consequently, they require getting the related knowledge and skills after accepting the role of teacher trainers. Besides numerous aspects affecting teacher trainers’ professional development, teaching skills, and knowledge have important functions that are at the center of attention in this mini-review of literature. In brief, several implications are presented for the instructional addressees.

Introduction

The important function of pre-service and in-service educator training platforms in providing educators is a controversial topic in educator training literature ( Smith, 2010 ). Within such programs, educators take the primary measures toward being specialists, achieve higher confidence in their education, and expand the scope of their knowledge reservoir ( Akbari and Dadvand, 2011 ). The teaching job demands ongoing education and growth since it is directly involved with human capital ( Harris and Jones, 2010 ). Educator quality needs educators to have the knowledge and skills in the field they instruct. Educators obtain these skills during their program ( Blank and Alas, 2010 ; Butler, 2015 ) through Professional Development (PD) which has a vital function in an educator’s future profess and development. Educators require chances to upsurge their knowledge and skills, maintain their incentives, and expand their cooperation with others in their careers ( Margolis, 2008 ). In the history of academia, no attempt at advancement has ever been effective and successful without carefully arranged and well-executed PD actions planned to improve teachers’ knowledge and skills ( Guskey, 2009 ).

The literature on learning has taken part in discussions for years on whether educator standard is the most significant school factor affecting learners’ success and enhancing the standard of the school ( Kang et al., 2013 ; Macia and García, 2016 ). Similarly, academic leaders, theorists, and scholars have emphasized how to best improve the standard of teaching to enhance learners’ education and success. Each year, nations spend billions of dollars on enhancing the standard of their educators’ skills and eligibilities by building their chances for professional development (PD) ( DeMonte, 2013 ). The standard of teacher education has been known as a central issue influencing the standard of teaching and learners’ success. Therefore, there has been increasing attention to teacher trainers: their individuality, skills, functions, and PD ( Loughran, 2014 ; Lunenberg et al., 2014 ).

Until recently, teacher trainers were characterized as concealed experts who are not always presented with the help and challenge they require, for instance concerning their learning and PD ( Livingston, 2014 ). Teacher trainers are among those who are engaged in the learning of learners, educators, and ongoing PD of in-service educators ( Czerniawski et al., 2017 ). Nonetheless, in the last 20 years, scholars, and teacher trainers themselves began to growingly notice the particular quality of their jobs, and so, they have begun to emphasize teacher trainers’ PD ( Berry, 2016 ; Lunenberg et al., 2017 ).

The teacher trainer is considered the most affecting factor when preparing better-organized educators ( Snoek et al., 2010 ), and their function can be explained as a facilitator who links the distance among highpoint level policymakers at the countrywide and/or nearby area. Consequently, they must satisfy the knowledge and function criteria set by employing political organizations and practically display those criteria ( Lunenberg et al., 2017 ). Educator trainers have numerous roles, which need PD and learning ( Swennen et al., 2010 ; Lunenberg et al., 2014 ) and professional educators should be able to grow knowledge in making well-informed choices regarding activities with approaches that can respond to complicated conditions according to complicated knowledge and reflection ( Loughran and Hamilton, 2016 ).

Classes today have altered with time due to higher levels of diversities and have become more intricate as a result of technology and the generational gap ( Gomes et al., 2015 ; Sonmark et al., 2017 ). Thus, an educational space is a place for learners to attain novel knowledge and skills and a workplace where educators can study and enhance their careers. And EFL educators necessary need to gain the most recent education knowledge and skills within the milieu of English language education and learning to enhance the learners’ development and growth and perform the international necessities of the universal time ( Zhiyong et al., 2020 ). To comprehend and assist educator trainers’ PD in the best way, it’s vital to understand what skills and knowledge they require and how they efficiently obtain such skills and knowledge during their profession ( MacPhail et al., 2019 ).

Just as the excellence of teachers influences the learning results of students, the eminence of teacher educators impacts the quality of teachers ( Darling-Hammond, 2010 ). The study was done by Buchberger et al. (2000) regarding the growth and the future of teacher education, in which the authors declared that development in the proficiencies of teacher educators may well contribute to significant growth in the quality of teachers. Despite their crucial function in the training and assisting of future educators, research literature and documents on who educator trainers are and how they professionally influence education are not examined until recently ( Czerniawski et al., 2017 ). Overall, presently, there appears to be an agreement that teacher educators are a significant element in deciding the standard of educators, who, in turn, are a significant element in deciding the standard of the education of their learners at different levels of education ( Murray and Kosnik, 2011 ). The professional development literature review indicated that educators’ PD activities mostly reveal their restrained obtaining of knowledge and skills. The issue is caused by the providers’ inability to design PD applications that address the educators’ needs ( Darling-Hammond, 2010 ). Teacher trainers are sometimes held accountable for their vagueness in determining the action purpose and theory in their PD program, however, educators in some other cases are even unwilling to be responsible for their own PD ( Daniel and Peercy, 2014 ). Nonetheless, based on the literature when perspectives from educators merge with that of educator trainers, it can probably ascertain congruence between the contents of educator training and the educators’ needs in addition to higher facilitation of educators’ PD ( He et al., 2011 ). However, based on the researcher’s knowledge, on the one hand, not enough consideration has been paid to teacher educator studies ( Lunenberg et al., 2014 ; Van der Klink et al., 2017 ) and on the other hand, there is little information regarding educator trainers and their PD: how they are educated and taught and what leads to a proper teacher trainer ( Villegas-Reimers, 2003 ; Lin, 2013 ).

Review of the Literature

Professional development of teacher trainers.

Professional development (PD) has been characterized as an inner cycle in which experts are involved in a formal or informal model embedded in the precarious assessment of expert practice ( Smith, 2010 ). Professional development alludes to these types of elevations in knowledge and skills. It is considered the foundation of expert practice in all careers. Villegas-Reimers (2003) argued that the PD of teacher trainers is not famous in comparison with educator PD. Research has suggested that educator PD is one of the impactful elements in learners’ education and success ( Villegas-Reimers, 2003 ; Darling-Hammond, 2010 ). Professional development is specifically essential for novice educators who must become accustomed to the standards of their careers. Certainly, as stated by Futernick (2007) , educators who quit this job regularly state the absence of PD as one of the reasons. PD can also enable educators’ exposure to growing leadership roles. This is particularly crucial to educators in the final level of their profession, whose devotion and inspiration may be falling ( Day and Gu, 2007 ).

Teacher trainers’ PD has been characterized as formal educational and expert progress classes to prepare teachers with pertinent and updated knowledge and capabilities crucial to standard improvement ( Sierra-Piedrahita, 2007 ). In addition, teacher trainers’ PD has been explained as the growth of a question as a position, which alludes to the cycle of ongoing and structured questions wherein they contemplate their own and other’s presumptions and develop local and public knowledge that is suitable for the altering settings in which they work ( Loughran, 2014 ). The aim of teacher educator PD is four-fold: enhancing teacher education, satisfying outer requirements, and inner zeal for studying, enhancing, and fortifying the expert position within higher education ( Smith, 2010 ).

Knowledge and Skills

Knowledge pertains to the collective term for notions, fundamentals, and activities in a particular area of professional expertise and the overall information, and experience that are critical to efficient functioning in learning and using what is taught ( Sierra-Piedrahita, 2007 ). Pedagogical knowledge is important for educators since it portrays the body of knowledge on educational cycles and settings for learners ( O’Riordan, 2018 ). Alternatively, skills allude to the things “people know how to fulfill” and which are “achieved through practicing” ( Sierra-Piedrahita, 2007 ). Skill or ability refers to the people’s capability to do numerous tasks in a profession and it is also defined by Khorasgani (2019) as something one is familiar with how to perform. Having attempted to designate the knowledge base of education, seven classes of educators’ knowledge are recommended which encompass material knowledge, overall educational knowledge, curriculum knowledge, educational material knowledge, knowledge of learners and their features, knowledge of scholastic settings, knowledge of academic goals, goals, and principles, and their theoretical basis ( Ingvarson et al., 2005 ). Such scope of knowledge is highly difficult for educator trainers and learners similar, because ethnicity, social status, cultural variations, and inequality are sensitive, filled with sense and affection, and links to everybody’s central ideas and values ( Goodwin and Kosnik, 2013 ).

Conclusion and Implications

Professional development for educators is now deemed as a crucial element of guidelines to improve the standard of teaching and education in colleges. Therefore, there is prominent attention to studies that determine attributes of successful professional education ( Ingvarson et al., 2005 ). The educational intention of the PD for educators was to attain the skills required to enable learners’ education through explorations that aimed at scientific inquiry skills covered in their teaching process. However, teacher trainers are being considered professionals and their PD is inevitably on the rise. Teacher educators’ PD is an inevitable cycle and a crucial component of enhancing learning overall; therefore, teacher trainers should be dynamic mediators in their growth by keeping themselves up to date with novel information developing and improving knowledge on education and teacher instruction to enhance and boost their own teaching.

In addition, educator trainers need to teach educators with enough knowledge of learners’ learning patterns and tactics. Educators require learning regarding various methods of learning as employed by different individuals, such that they can efficiently goal education in the direction of learners’ learning requirements. Education knowledge and skills are anticipated to be designed by educator trainers during their educator training classes as they are typically liable to make them explicit and reachable to learner educators. Teacher trainers are predicted to build novel knowledge, including knowledge in practice in the framework of recent curricula and learning programs for educator trainers and schools besides knowledge in theory produced from studies.

Based on the literature, an effective teacher educator needs to have enough knowledge of particular and efficient approaches to expose scholar-teachers to numerous diverse techniques of teaching and they are also capable of assisting them to collect a remarkable style of their own teaching. Thus, educator trainers must get acquainted with the knowledge of research and skills, and with the skills to monitor learner educators in doing studies. Professional development practices were made to make them ready for it. Teacher educators feel better equipped for the new tasks if they are provided with the prospects to be present at PD tasks with the accurate situations. There is a need to hold seminars and conferences as they are the main paths to PD for educator trainers and they are sometimes employed for bringing in new knowledge and activity. More studies specifically empirical should be conducted that employ interview as through implementing the interviews, more in-depth understanding can be achieved.

Author Contributions

Both authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

This work was supported by Research on the integration of the historical experience of the CPC’s hundred years of struggle into the teaching of Ideological and Political Course, Teaching reform project of Dalian Maritime University in 2022; Construction of red practice curriculum under the background of “party history integrated into Ideological and political teaching,” Liaoning Social Science Planning Fund project in 2022.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords : knowledge, professional development, teacher trainers, teaching skills, teaching knowledge

Citation: Su H and Wang J (2022) Professional Development of Teacher Trainers: The Role of Teaching Skills and Knowledge. Front. Psychol. 13:943851. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.943851

Received: 14 May 2022; Accepted: 31 May 2022; Published: 28 June 2022.

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Copyright © 2022 Su and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Hang Su, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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The Role of Field Training in STEM Education: Theoretical and Practical Limitations of Scalability

Kseniia nepeina, natalia istomina, olga bykova.

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Correspondence: [email protected] ; Tel.: +996-(312)613140 or +996-755-77-07-50; Fax: +996-312611459

Received 2020 Feb 18; Accepted 2020 Mar 1; Collection date 2020 Mar.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).

In this article, we consider the features of the perception of student information in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, in order to draw the attention of researchers to the topic of learning in practice through field training. The article shows the results of these studies in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, as an example) to reflect the global trends. For this purpose, we examined the expectations of students in Russia and the CIS countries from training related to lectures and field training. We created a questionnaire and distributed it in three Moscow-based universities (Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography—MIIGAiK, Moscow Aviation Institute—MAI, and Moscow City University—MCU). Our key assumption is that field practices in Russian universities are qualitatively different from the phenomenon described in European literature, where digital or remote field practices have already emerged. The results obtained through the survey show the tendency of students’ perceptions to fulfill practical duties (in a laboratory with instruments of field training) in STEM education.

Keywords: new educational model, higher education, skills, qualification, STEM education, geopolygon, test site, field training, Earth sciences

1. Introduction

The history of human society is divided into the three areas of its functioning—state and legislative, economic life, and cultural environment—through the development of which we can observe human history. The education system, i.e., the transfer of culture from generation to generation, is an essential element in the development of human society [ 1 ]. Global key trends and obstacles in the progress of higher education are connected by two facts. First of all, the personality of a contemporary student has changed. A separate structure has replaced the transition from homeschooling (parental) education. Second, educational technologies have been altered too. Due to knowledge transfer, nowadays there is an increasing number of technologies in higher education, and teachers can be trained in these new presenting methods. The specifics of studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) require mandatory support from theoretical courses with unique practices at training polygons.

Another change in the field of education that can be discovered from observations of the history of the development of human society is the introduction of the state–legal side to the cultural side of society. Initially, education was transmitted through the family. Then, for example, in England, in the 18th and 19th centuries, schools were a matter of social initiative. Nowadays, the ideas of economic life penetrate the education system; education is transferred to the service sector, while the state and legal influence on it does not wane. This position leads to opposite points of view, listed in [ 2 ]. That is why, currently, a person is considered uneducated without a state-approved document, and in the context of globalization, this trend is becoming global [ 3 ]. Unification of programs is appearing, education standards are being revealed, and the degree of uniformity in the transfer of knowledge is growing. Thus, more formal specialized methods for knowledge transfer must be forced to change. This is linked with the solution of using psychological and pedagogical tasks, as well as utilizing soft skills (teamwork training, leadership development, etc.).

Now, we are witnessing the separation of intellect from personality. Industry 4.0 proclaims automatization that exalts the organization’s intelligence in the decision-making system, while the managerial role of the person is excluded. Personal changes are manifested in modern users of education. They differ from their predecessors in pragmatism, a sense of independence, lack of concentration of attention and inability to listen, clip thinking, and the need for self-expression [ 4 ]. Also, one of the most required abilities is to do patient and accurate fulfillment of similar tasks, which vary by visualization type.

The personal contemporary portrait of individual students is changing, as evident in the separation of the human “me” from nature, the appearance of a landscape in painting, the birth of nation states, the appearance of abstract thought in mathematics, and formal laws. However, this is not a complete list of the phenomena that indicate a change of eras, or the onset of the era of the new time. Such external conditions correspond to their own set of teaching aids for knowledge transfer: textbooks, learning aurally, or knowledge transfer using language concepts when using lectures. Note that the digital model of education does not scale to the study of scientific subjects related to the study of the history, evolution, and structure of the Earth.

Changes in the environment, including those due to the globalization process, the use of new tools such as online courses, and most importantly, a shift in personality, require a change in learning tools and methods. For learning, you need to use a different set of teaching aids: clips, teaching through visual images, knowledge transfer using new language concepts, replacing lectures with forms of independent work, followed by giving the student the opportunity for public expression to gain approval from members of the social group, but not the teacher. At the same time, it is precisely at the student age that the possibilities of perception, attention, memory, and thinking reach their maximum [ 5 ].

The most significant changes are currently taking place in the Eurasian space since the process of changes takes place in the context of the formation of new states and is inextricably linked with the creation of national education systems with new values. To date, this is the Consortium, whose partners are 16 leading universities in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, as well as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Moldova, and Armenia. The digitalization of the Russian and The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) economy poses more challenges and prospects for the implementation of new educational technologies.

It turns out that many students cannot master a specialty by only using visual images. The specifics of the disciplines related to the study of the Earth’s structure presupposes the mandatory follow-up of theoretical courses by particular training at the test site, which helps to neutralize the negative factors of indoor schooling. Knowledge could be improved during training when students solve a specific task in the field. Furthermore, the interaction between the teacher and students at the test site helps to resolve those problems that may not be solvable in the classroom or with online training (the formation of practical work skills goes along with the solution of psychological and pedagogical issues, the study of teamwork, and the creation of leadership qualities). It is necessary to satisfy students’ expectations from training related to lectures and field training. Afterwards, we can compare them with real trends in the dynamics of changes in educational technologies. Since these trends are global, it is necessary to identify the differences that distinguish them in the study of STEM. The purpose of this article is to show the results of experimental studies in Russia and in CIS countries in order to reflect the global nature of trends and the scalability limitations of modern educational technologies on the disciplines of studying Earth sciences. The work consists of an experimental study of the representations of students of specialties related to Earth Sciences, practical skills in STEM education. However, we still mention, as highlights, the problem of real STEM education training in terms of improving the quality of public management in the digital model of education. This article highlights today’s point of view in the academic environment; significance is placed on the non-European pedagogical model, in which the novelty lies inside the real analysis of student requests, although some European countries (for example, Latvia ( www.lu.lv/en ); Germany, University of Applied Sciences of Neubrandenburg, Albania, Serbia) and Latin America (for example, Mexico) also fit well into this system.

2. Methodology

The general forms of knowledge transfer have not changed. On the one hand, more formal specialized methods for knowledge transfer should be forced to change. On the other hand, a change in the personality structure of a contemporary person also requires an alteration in the methods of knowledge transfer from a teacher to a student. Although, the considerable flow of information and the need for its processing complicates the process of growing up, and young people remain infantile for much longer. Therefore, it is difficult to talk about a deliberate choice of a profession or about an uncompromising attitude to study. Thus, we consider the educational environment in Russia and the CIS countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) to highlight global trends regarding the features of the perception of student information in STEM education.

First of all, we are interested in the proportion of the population getting an education in Russia and CIS countries. It is obvious ( Figure 1 ) that three countries, in particular, have the most significant percentages of educative mass—Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia.

Percentage of the population getting the education in CIS countries (RU—Russian Federation, BL—Belarus; Republics: KZ—Kazakhstan, KR—Kyrgyzstan, TJ—Tajikistan, AM—Armenia, AZ—Azerbaijan, UZ—Uzbekistan, MD—Moldova, UA—Ukraine) in 2018 after [ 6 ].

Learning in foreign languages opens up possibilities to study internationally. In [ 6 ], a list was given, showing the CIS ranging by English speaking skills between 80 different countries: Russia was in 38th place, Ukraine in 47th place, Azerbaijan in 64th place, and Kazakhstan in 67th place. Therefore, there is quite a low possibility to teach and to integrate into a globalization context. For Russia and CIS, Russian is the prime language ( Figure 2 ). That is why the number of students from CIS countries studying in Russian state and municipal higher education institutions and scientific organizations with bachelor’s, specialist, and master’s programs in terms of standard admission has been increasing each academic year since 2015 ( Figure 3 ): It was 124 K in 2015/2016, 132.7 K in 2016/2017, and 145.2 K in 2017/2018 in total.

Percentage of the population speaking Russian (RU—Russian Federation, BL—Belarus; Republics: KZ—Kazakhstan, KR—Kyrgyzstan, TJ—Tajikistan, AM—Armenia, AZ—Azerbaijan, UZ—Uzbekistan, MD—Moldova, UA—Ukraine) in 2018 after [ 6 ].

Students from the CIS countries studying in Russian state and municipal higher education institutions and scientific organizations with bachelor’s, specialist, and master’s programs in terms of standard admission at the beginning of the academic year (thousand persons) [ 6 ].

Note that higher STEM education programs at Russian Universities tend to be taught in English. For example, St. Petersburg Mining University ( https://spmi.ru ) and Moscow Gubkin University ( https://www.gubkin.ru ) have been realizing such programs for a few years now. STEM education is in high demand in the mining and geophysics industry. However, it is not a popular program for the students, as the plentiful number of applied tasks frightens young and inexperienced students. In fact, in common with field training, the studying year passes with no summer holidays, and therefore, STEM education in Earth Sciences (which means subjects such as: geography, geodesy, geoecology, geotechnical engineering, geodesy, geomorphology, geology, and geophysics) is rather rare.

2.1. The Place of STEM Education in Russian Universities

According to the Russian Education portal, bachelor students of Geography study at 54 universities and master students study at 31 universities. In recent years, on a federal budgetary basis, about 1.4–1.8 K students were enrolled at the bachelor level in Geography, and 970–3400 students were enrolled at the master level (admission to the magistracy was significantly increased). Fourteen universities are currently preparing bachelor’s programs of hydrometeorology; master’s programs in this direction have been opened at 5 universities. General admission to the bachelor’s program includes more than 500 students, and to the master’s program, about 540 students. General admission to the bachelor’s degree in Applied Meteorology does not exceed 380 students, a set of undergraduates—about 400 students. Bachelor-cartographers study at 13 universities, and masters at 3 universities. The admission quota to the bachelor’s degree in Cartography and Geoinformatics is about 490 students. Herein, higher geographic and environmental education means the preparation of bachelors and masters in the fields of Geography, Hydrometeorology, Cartography and Geoinformatics, and Ecology and nature management. This direction is the only one in which the number of budget places for undergraduate studies has increased in recent years. In the course Ecology and Nature Management, bachelor students graduate in 168 and masters in 75 universities. Admission figures are compiled by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology. In terms of quantitative training indicators for student geographers and ecologists, Russia lags behind many countries. For example, in the UK, geography is studied in more than 80 universities (the number of undergraduate geography students is 30 K); in Germany, in 60 universities; and in France, in 178 universities. In the USA, a bachelor’s degree in geography can be obtained at more than 200 Universities (annual graduation is more than 6 K), a master’s degree in geography in about 90 universities, and a doctor of geography (Ph.D.) in 60 universities. In India, an average of 12.5 K students study annually in undergraduate programs in geographical programs, 4–5 K students are enrolled in graduate and postgraduate studies annually, and these numbers are planned to increase significantly by 2020 [ 7 ].

The real state of education in STEM with Pedagogical Examples is given in [ 8 ]. Navigation skills and STEM learning, specifically related to the field of Geography and Geoscience (Earth Sciences), are essential as they help to pursue professional development. The ability to integrate and connect different routes to create a map of the environment, to relate them to each other, and to investigate them is a specialty of field training. From this point of view, research examining the effectiveness of geoinformation systems (GIS) training is under consideration [ 9 ]. “A geophysics class may also incorporate labor field-based activities using a particular instrument (e.g., radar, gravimeter) to measure variations in material properties, and then discuss potential limitations in the measurements that aid interpretations of the data. With both types of activities, developing that capacity to make logical conclusions that flow from the available data is a key focus of the learning experience” [ 10 ].

2.2. Field Training

The basic principle of practical training is a combination of practical exercises with simulation methods in the development of practical skills and fluency with new equipment. Field training is one of the main activities to ensure the development of hard skills. Field training in STEM education is much more effective because it connects both types of skills: soft and hard. The collective work using professional devices, for example, a surveying instrument with a theodolite (a rotating telescope for measuring horizontal and vertical angles), is usually made by at least two persons together.

Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography (MIIGAiK) educates students in the scope of problems of geodesy, cartography, and cadastre, as well as such specific fields as precise instrument-making, geoinformatics, ecology, and remote sensing [ 11 ]. The glorious past of MIIGAiK, deep-rooted in pedagogical and scientific traditions accumulated throughout the 225 years of its development, the importance and vitality of geodetic science and practice for many branches of national economy, with a wide range of specialists being trained at the University—all of these factors assure the leading role of MIIGAiK as a specialized institution of higher education [ 12 ]. More than 2000 foreign students have graduated from the University. The University study provides theoretical and practical training, and STEM education disciplines (such are geographic information technologies (GIS)) are educated at the Department of Cartography of MIIGAiK [ 11 , 12 , 13 ].

The evidence that has emerged from the studies [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ] has proved that the field-based approach is effective in helping students to attain the required knowledge for the understanding of the natural context, and to illustrate phenomena and confirm their skills. As well as soft skills, other competencies such as scientific reasoning and inquiry capacities are also developed. Training offers the opportunity to work as part of a team (as you know, this particular skill in recent years has been a weak spot among students of MIIGAiK, for example, as teachers who travel to practice with students have repeatedly stated). Students also learn safety rules, which are more crucial than in general conditions in classrooms.

Another critical difference between domestic and European geographic education is that, in Russia, many more hours are devoted to training and production practices [ 19 , 20 ], particularly in undergraduate studies, with up to 36 h, which is 9%–15% of the total complexity. In Europe, the most widespread field practices are preserved at universities in the Netherlands (4 weeks), and in the UK, France, and Sweden, which do not exceed two weeks. During training, students travel not only to various regions of their country but also to non-CIS countries (for example, Africa, Central America, etc.). In most European universities, field practices are study tours lasting 1–2 days, the purpose of which is to teach students to work on a specific topic in small groups. Such trips are usually paid for by the students themselves; in an academic year, there are only 2–3 trips [ 7 ].

In Russia, in recent years, the problem of financing field training practices has come to the fore, especially in regional universities [ 7 ]. There is the threat of losing rich experience in conducting field training as the practice, which has always been not only a way to acquire and consolidate knowledge, but also a form of preparation for professional activity. In addition to funding problems [ 19 ], Russian universities are faced with organizational issues in conducting training and production practices, in their methodological and instrumental support, and in being equipped with modern laboratory equipment.

Principally, training in STEM education has a number of disadvantages. “There may be gendered issues, cultural and language barriers, logistical issues, security issues and problem in creating accurate risk assessments without prior visits by staff. There are also issues around privileged, educated, and relatively affluent university students going to view and study underprivileged groups or locations in poorer societies, often without their consent” [ 20 ]. There is a potentially high risk for safety violations because of weather conditions. Virtual reality (VR) classes could be limited by technology and have struggled to expand due to a lack of computing power and memory [ 21 ].

Education is mostly impacted by new spatial visualization software and virtual reality (VR) in higher education, which is a big trend [ 21 ]. Also, in some places, geological virtual field experiences (VFEs) have been developed that consist of form high-resolution two-dimensional (2-D) photomosaics and three-dimensional (3-D) computer models [ 10 ]. VFEs can potentially eliminate some of the issues that physical field trips can create.

According to new educational technologies, some countries use Virtual reality techniques, such as in [ 8 , 10 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]. This is because the students need visualization in order to provide evidence of some geological processes, for example, plate tectonics. A comparison of the most popular models of head-mounted display systems for virtual reality (VR) used for educational purposes is given in [ 10 ]. However, we agree with [ 10 ] that sometimes, some test scenarios would be too difficult or dangerous to perform in real life.

Based on the analysis of some institutional changes in the higher education system, we aim to justify the conclusion that the problem of obtaining knowledge in real space in the digital age is growing. Comparing the collected data with descriptions of the problem in foreign literature, we show that the domestic higher education system is characterized by a particular type of student dropout, associated with physical limitations in the admission of students, which requires individual study and targeted measures of educational policy in connection with the characteristics of the profession. At the moment, even if there is no possibility of an internship within the university, students are forced to undergo field practices outside the university. That is why it is so essential to create and maintain the stability of field test training sites or geopolygons. The requirements for geopolygons are restricted. First of all, remoteness from the noise is needed. Second, pure nature is essential in order to conduct experiments (such as drone test). Field scientific and educational centers will provide cooperation of the educational, scientific, and production organizations in the sphere of Earth sciences. They will be based on the principle of unity of technologies of scientific expedition support [ 19 ]. As such, the Research Station of the Russian Academy of Sciences at the Bishkek Geodynamic polygon is suitable for these conditions [ 33 , 34 , 35 ]. The network of field test sites will include regional field scientific and educational centers. At MIIGAiK University, there is a Site called Chekhov Geopolygon [ 36 ]. Moscow State University established a geophysical training site 200 km from Moscow on the Russian platform in 1992 [ 37 , 38 , 39 ]. The development of field test sites and saving the key long-term field reference areas are both possible as part of a national network. The unified standard infrastructure of field test sites will allow the efficient scaling and distribution of modern methods of researches in expeditions. The optimization of a network of field test sites is possible on the basis of their inventory, determination of their uniqueness, status, and perspectives of development [ 19 ].

2.3. STEM Online Education at the National Universities

Massive open online courses (MOOC) is a new tool in education [ 40 , 41 ]. However, serious pedagogical concerns associated with the inability of an instructor to provide individualized instruction to thousands of students have emerged [ 42 , 43 ]. Also, according to [ 42 ], the analysis of the completion of the course from the “Satellite Technologies in Geography” section concludes that: “It is not true that a MOOC must necessarily be absent of any faculty presence, just as it is also not true that a successful MOOC must only feature lecture videos or be taught by a faculty member who is famous”.

It should be noted that the grant support is aimed today at the digitalization of education “Modern Digital Educational Environment in the Russian Federation” [ 44 ]. The results are visible via digital platforms [ 45 , 46 ].

The online resource aggregator http://neorusedu.ru/ [ 45 ] provides access to courses from Russian Universities, expanding exclusively for Russian citizens the opportunity to study throughout their life at any convenient time, wherever they are at that moment—the main requirement for these types of courses is that an Internet connection is available. Additionally, this resource pays excellent attention to attracting the cooperation of employers. If the electronic certificate received after the final exam serves as a confirmation that students completed the test (more than a hundred universities are connected to the “one window” resource, whose students master some of the disciplines online), then for the rest of the students, it is a certificate of new knowledge and competencies. One of the educational models provides for the complete replacement of the discipline in the curriculum with online courses. The second educational model is that of blended learning, where online courses replace only the theoretical part of the subject. The practical part—laboratory, workshops, seminars—is accompanied by a university teacher. Today, educational organizations are more likely to lean toward the second model.

Another national platform of open education, “Open Education” https://openedu.ru/ [ 46 ], is a modern educational platform that offers online courses in basic disciplines studied at Russian universities. The Association “National Platform created the platform for Open Education” was established by the leading universities Moscow State University M.V. Lomonosov, St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg State University, National University of Economics “MISiS”, Higher School of Economics “HSE, MIPT”, Ural Federal University “UrFU”, and Saint Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics “ITMO”. All courses posted on the Platform are available free of charge and without formal requirements of a basic level of education. Compared to courses of other online learning platforms, courses of the national platform have certain features:

all courses are developed following the requirements of federal state educational standards;

all courses meet the requirements for the results of training of educational programs implemented in universities;

special attention is paid to the effectiveness and quality of online courses, as well as to the procedures for evaluating learning outcomes.

The international Coursera portal ( https://www.coursera.org/ ) contains programs from prestigious universities and employers from around the world, from Russian Moscow State University and St. Petersburg State University to Stanford University and Google [ 47 ]. More than 50 courses are now offered in Russian or with Russian subtitles. However, on international platforms, all courses are covered in English, while on national platforms, they are in their native language. However, we are faced with a problem: most online courses are aimed at first-year or second-year students.

As a procedure for understanding trends in STEM education in Russia and CIS countries, we examined the students’ expectations. As an instrument, we have used the online survey (see Table 1 ), which we have created in later 2019. The participants present three Moscow-based universities (Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography—MIIGAiK, Moscow Aviation Institute—MAI, and Moscow City University—MCU) and some academic staff. In the results section we provide data analysis.

Survey questions and answers (powered by Istomina N.L. and Nepeina K.S.).

The educational environment in Russia and CIS countries reflects the global world trends in learning processes. With the introduction of digital learning technologies, knowledge transfer has changed. Massive open online courses and open learning platforms are designed to show that distance learning can be scaled to all educational specialties. However, teaching technologies in the form of passive contemplation by students of the visual range and solutions of test problems cannot be scalable to study the disciplines necessary to obtain professional competencies and knowledge in STEM education (Earth sciences). STEM education specifically requires the mandatory support of theoretical courses with individual practices at the test sites. Inversely, we observe a decrease in the educational time units designed for training practices in STEM and Earth sciences (geography, geodesy, geoecology, geotechnical engineering, geodesy, geomorphology, geology, and geophysics) —there is a tendency to replace off-site activities with online and VR technologies.

In order to show the limited scalability of modern educational technologies to disciplines related to the study of Earth sciences, we give arguments confirming the importance of the formation of practical work skills, which goes hand in hand with the solution of psychological and pedagogical tasks, teamwork training, leadership formation, and patient and thorough implementation of the same tasks. Based on the results of an empirical study conducted in three Moscow universities, and including a survey of some students and some respondents who recently graduated from the university, we consider the peculiarities of students’ perceptions of information in STEM (Earth sciences) and their expectations from the learning process. We proceed from the fact that field practices in Russian universities are qualitatively different from the phenomenon described in the European literature, where digital or distance field practices for people with disabilities are already appearing. Thus, we developed a special online survey, with the idea to highlight the point of view of a modern student on educational technology.

The level of preparedness of students to work with electronic resources is very heterogeneous. Thus, the development of resources and Internet technologies comes to the fore. At the same time, there has been a rapid growth in information and communication technologies (video conferencing, webinars, groups on social networks, and many others), which makes it possible to organize not only the passive perception of online courses, but also the active remote interaction of students, a collective discussion of the material, and joint execution of tasks, all while at significant physical distances from each other. Therefore, the university teacher is now faced with the need to possess not only subject knowledge and modern technical means, but also management techniques of computer-mediated educational communication. Mastering the educational form of information education is an urgent task of our time.

The students’ lack of understanding of the concepts of a map section, a cross-section of a complex technical object (spatial ability into constituent spatial skills), and aberrations of an optical image of a star in a telescope observed by students moves us toward a change in the methods and technologies of teaching technical disciplines for students of geodesic, cartographic, and geophysical specialties from visual static illustrations to dynamic pictures as of films. To handle the material, it is necessary that when reading a lecture, an interactive way of conducting classes is used [ 6 ]. Such tools can provide access to the Internet and gadgets. American physicist Michio Kaku believes that the basis of future education is Google Glass, and those who study through lectures are losing out [ 20 ].

However, if in the case of training, the student is gaining courses following the curriculum, then such an instrument does not exist for the employee of the company (teacher, researcher, engineering, and technical personnel). In this case, the employee sometimes must forcibly acquire knowledge at any other possible sites.

In 2019, a voluntary Survey (details in the Table 1 ) about state-of-the-art education in the Geoscience Faculty of MIIGAiK, the faculty of Innovations and a pedagogical group of students answered questions. Short questionnaires were administered to 64 respondents, including students from the bachelor’s and master’s programs, with ages ranging from 18 to 25 (average age, 23 years). The observation reports were powered by the researchers (the authors). The advantage of resorting to diverse techniques and instruments to collect data was the possibility to triangulate quantitative and qualitative methods, thus enhancing the validity of the results. The validation of the short survey was carried out by the authors. The questionnaires that were administered to evaluate the preparatory and summary units had the following closed questions ( Table 1 ), which had to be answered at least in 5 variants. Reports were written after the class to verify the relevant (positive and negative) aspects of the mediation process, the difficulties of the students’ engagement in the process, and an overall evaluation of the model that was implemented. Circle charts were used to group the items (see Figure 4 , Figure 5 , Figure 6 , Figure 7 , Figure 8 , Figure 9 , Figure 10 , Figure 11 and Figure 12 ) and the description of results (below).

Survey results. Question 1. Age.

Survey results. Question 2. Occupation. Sectors: blue—employee, red—researcher, yellow—unemployed, green—master’s student, orange—bachelor’s student.

Survey results. Question 3. Study objectives. Sectors: blue—there are so many changes in the world that my skills quickly become obsolete (4.8%); red—obtaining skills for mastering a specialty; yellow—none, don’t know (1%); green—obtaining knowledge; orange—while there is no universal and suitable program for me, I have to study in different places; brown—I want to learn everything new; purple—I want to gain an additional specialty; pink—Social status and prestige; white—have a good time within the student auditorium; other (~3%), please specify: light blue—learning ability; magenta—opportunity to “find” interesting topics for professional development; grey—I need education. Development is interesting, I hope to get into an adequate structure, where you really learn and develop, and do not waste time talking and talking for the sake of reporting.

Survey results. Question 4. Lectures perception. Sectors: blue—independently (in the library, in the book); red—as presentations, communication with a lively person; yellow—I do not like to learn new material; green—solving case studies (a method of specific situations) or a game; orange—tête-à-tête with teacher/lecturer/mentor; brown—as a joint discussion as a type of crowdsourcing; purple—as lectures, the audience is communicating with a lively person. Nobody selected the answer “As lectures, communication via Skype, but with one person”.

Survey results. Question 5. Lectures repetition. Sectors: blue—need to take and learn new topics and not to repeat; red—needs to be repeated if necessary; yellow—does not need to be repeated; green—needs to be repeated 1–2 times in the school year; orange—needs to be repeated 1–2 times per semester; answers added by the students (other): brown—regular and straightforward control of knowledge and study of the material helps a lot; purple—the most effective way to consolidate knowledge is to drive through various mechanisms of perception and reproduction by a person: listen, write something, try to convey it to someone; pink—needs to be repeated 1–2 times per semester through case studies, seminars, and lab classwork.

Survey results. Question 6. Proving skills. Sectors: blue—as practical work with geodevices; red—I do not need practical exercises to consolidate skills, as I remember everything; yellow—to create a specific project; green—cogitation tasks that can then be discussed with the teacher and other students, and not just tests; orange—as competition among students, during which my strengths and weaknesses are determined; brown—answers to tests via a computer, where my answers are checked by a robot.

Survey results. Question 7. Visual displays. Sectors: blue—paper versions; red—computer screen; yellow—Virtual Reality headset; green—Movie Screen. The answer “I don’t need to watch. I remember aurally” was not chosen.

Survey results. Question 8. Lecture time. Sectors: blue—I can withstand more than 2 h if I am allowed to move, rather than just sitting in one place; red—45 min; yellow—lying down, I can listen as long as I like; green—1.5 h; orange—15–18 min.

Survey results. Questions 9 and 10. Future work perspectives. Left—the first option, right—the second option. Sectors: blue—I like to travel and do field research; red—remotely as a freelancer; yellow—I do not want to work, I want to continue to study; green—in the office among other employees; orange—managing innovations.

This is a description of the survey. It contains details and data supplemental to the main text. The main flow of questions is with answers ( Table 1 ) using Google Forms online. We were oriented toward inclusive learning environments in undergraduate courses [ 48 ]. We are sure that such a kind of questionnaire provides new information on the current state of teaching practices in STEM education concerning inclusive practices. We expect to compare results in future projects. These results could lead to maintaining focused STEM education development.

The self-reported use of practices across these four categories of ages ( Figure 4 ) and five categories of occupation ( Figure 5 ) are also highlighted. The most significant numbers of testimonials were provided by bachelor’s and master’s students aged 21–25.

The largest proportion of respondents chose their study objectives as getting knowledge (23.8%), followed by obtaining skills for mastering a specialty (22.9%) ( Figure 6 ). Note, that there is still a large number who want to study for learning everything new (20% in Figure 6 ). This means that education is still not only implied for getting a job.

The contemporary generation of students is interested in case studies at the universities (28.9%) ( Figure 7 ). Generally, nobody selected the answer “As lectures, communication via Skype, but with one person” for Q4 ( Figure 7 ). Near equally, the presentation and real communication or tet-a-tet conversation with the teacher are preferable ( Figure 7 ). Concerning material repetition, it is an individual aspect. Most of the students are ready to repeat some material 1–2 times per semester/school year ( Figure 8 ). Regarding the survey results ( Table 1 ), the students are encouraged to test their skills as practical work with geodevices (47.4%) or by creating a case study project (39.5%) ( Figure 9 ). It is also important that, for Q7, the answer “I don’t need to watch. I remember aurally” was not chosen ( Figure 10 ). Despite the implementation of digital technologies, the students gain new information mostly via paper versions (36.8%), and equally less on a computer screen or a virtual reality headset ( Figure 10 ). Most of them are ready for 45-min lectures (42.1%) or 1.5-h lectures (21.1%) ( Figure 11 ). The greater proportion of respondents in the future desire, firstly, to manage innovation (28.9%) or to work remotely as a freelancer (21.1%) ( Figure 12 ). Therefore, it is necessary to think about why modern methods of education are aimed to educate specific skills to rear the ideal workers, while not all graduates are ready to work for specific enterprises.

We obtained survey results that, accordingly, show students’ desires to fulfill practical activities (in a laboratory with field training tools) during STEM classes. We believe that these training practices will be taken into account in the future.

4. Discussion

This article notes that the education system is a part of the national culture that is formed under the influence of history, geography of the country, social and social conditions of life, and which depends on the national mentality and the psychological activity characteristics of both students and teachers alike. The authors conclude that there are some difficulties in the higher education conditions of the 21st century. The new digital era raises the problem of the discrepancy between the skills that a student receives online and the skills he must master during on-site field training.

We agree with Kuznetsov [ 41 ] that Russian students themselves are not ready to accept digital education as a fully-fledged learning method. “The correction of this situation requires the introduction of technological and organizational solutions in the field of education, aimed at adapting the educational system to the dynamically changing needs of the labor market, individualization of educational trajectories and increasing the involvement of students in the educational process”. There is a deficient percentage of students who complete online courses successfully. The teaching of speech disciplines in technical universities is unusual and does not involve everyday usage. Particular attention is paid to the interactive form of conducting classes.

It has been shown [ 41 ] that the education system, formed in the previous technological way, does not meet the needs of contemporary society. The main issue is that there still does not exist a system of recognition of the equality of online education in comparison to traditional forms of education. The fact that there is a continuing lack of implementation of online technologies in the educational process by educational organizations themselves impacts on the process speed. So, if today, in the enterprises and organizations of Russia, 50 personal computers are accounted for 100 employees, of which 33 are connected to the Internet, then in our universities, there are only 228 of these equipped workplaces. Against this fact, the general level of financing of educational organizations in Russia, which is 4.7% of the gross domestic product, seems insufficient. According to the accumulated statistics of the largest educational online platforms, the number of students who reach the end of the training is 5%–13% of the initial admission [ 41 , 49 ]. There are circumstances that highlight the lack of development of the digital infrastructure and the need to train teachers. STEM teachers should mix their identities as a teacher, learner, risk-taker, inquirer, collaborator, and inspector at the same time, especially during field training. Educational institutes need to take into account the difference in the pedagogical culture of international students and Russian teachers. Therefore, educational organizations should find more time and sponsor lecturer training too.

Educational methodological approaches are directly related to existing technologies and the needs of students. However, on the other hand, they are under pressure from official directions of governmental control. Teachers always have to adapt to the available technology and the needs of the students in accordance with state strategy. In fact, we are talking about a change in the general model of higher education. Instead of a humanistic model, which interprets higher education as a human right to enrich oneself with the highest intellectual achievements of humankind and put them at the service of social progress, the economic model is legitimized, which treats higher education as a sphere of investment that brings additional income, financial dividends, and other bonuses—which is no longer consistent with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Hence the direct path to the commercialization of relations between teachers and students, to the growth and the dominance of university management, to emasculating from university life everything that does not contribute to economic efficiency, i.e., profitability. The strategy of the digital economy in STEM education leads to a strong university bias toward scientific business services, the transfer of the center of gravity to paid custom research, which leads professors to devote most of their time to it because their status and well-being depend on their scientific activity. The situation emasculates from university life, everything that has little to do with applied tasks, especially with the preservation and development of social and art sciences.

5. Conclusions

The digital world is as essential and immersive as the real one. In a controlled environment, a pre-field trip can increase engagement in the topic studied. There are also benefits to the educator, such as reduced cost, more efficient students on fieldwork tasks, and the ability to tailor and update their field guides to suit their needs. However, there are drawbacks to the challenge of creation and their outcome as standalone educational tools. Online education will definitely develop, and at the same time, the skills of human communication will remain the most critical, which, as practice shows, is the most difficult to learn online. That is why we suggest that educational policymakers insights’ pay attention to and finance the outdoor learning environment as a potential obligatory activity for STEM education. A method of teaching using electronic learning management systems such as e-university and MOODLE can exist only as an addition to the usual forms of educational interaction with lectures and seminars. We agree with authors [ 20 , 21 , 41 ] that the tendency leading to a lack of teacher-student interaction through virtual reality technology is extremely scary. The potential balance between teaching hard and soft skills is a significant issue in the contemporary workplace. There must be an equilibrium between state-of-the-art solutions and human interaction, mentoring, and teacher–student relationships.

It is important to incorporate the outdoor learning environment as an integral part of the learning of STEM education. The best place to train geophysical or geonavigation competences is in well-prepared geopolygons with suitable infrastructure (such as internet access, remote low-noise area, well conditions, etc.). The teacher, having left the school department for the field training, is forced to change the official style of pedagogical communication into a familiar one, creating comfortable working conditions and increasing the effectiveness of learning outcomes.

Results section contains a description of the research methodology (survey, target group set, etc.). The study reveals that opportunities to be involved in practices are useful for students.

This article discussed the processes of global changes in STEM education of higher education, with flashbacks to Russia, linked to the acceptance of the Bologna declaration and digitalization, which is the outcome of global trends in higher education. This resulted, in particular, in the reduction of field training in STEM education. It also poses new requirements of lecturers in the system of higher education, and is involved in the process of new identity formation of being STEM teachers with the many roles and responsibilities associated with such an identity. Backlighted by active integration processes with international systems of education, it becomes evident that many Russian lecturers do not comply with the new requirements of the educational process: lack of or limited knowledge of foreign languages (English), lagging in “informatization” of education, mismatch in humanization and art science of the educational process. Thus, this article underlines the necessity for an anticipatory strategy in education, which is a crucial factor in the progressive development of the country.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank their colleagues for their help and for the survey distribution, as well as students and staff of the MIIGAiK, MAI, MCU for participation and MIIGAiK University for the basis. The authors are also thankful for online open-source Google Form utilities ( https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9302965?hl=en ). We are grateful to the reviewers for their comments, which were helpful in manuscript improving. We also express our gratitude to the academic editor and EJIHPE as a part of MDPI for enabling our research to be published.

Author Contributions

All authors read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. Conceptualization, N.I. and K.N.; analysis, data curation, and visualization, K.N.; methods and technologies, and writing of original draft, N.I.; original draft writing and translating, K.N.; methodological approaches and technologies, O.B.; resources, O.B. and N.I.

This research was partly supported by the Russian State Governmental Task of RS RAS № AAAA-A19-119020190063-2.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Due to the funders, the collection data was built. The funders had no role in the interpretation of data, in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has demanded large-scale collaboration within all organizations, including higher education, and taking teaching and learning seriously, in this moment, means leveraging partnerships to address the wicked (large, complex) problems cited by Bass (2020). These problems are not ours alone to solve; rather, we make the case for a “wicked consciousness,” an amalgam of perspectives, in educational development. Guided by intellectual humility, our success as educational developers ought to be measured by the quality of our collaborations as well as our ability to learn with others, form equitable partnerships, and lead others by our example.

transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary, collaboration, partnership, wicked consciousness

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Introduction

That teaching and learning had its own claim to scholarship was a novel idea 30 years ago ( Boyer, 1990 ). Many, including Randy Bass, subsequently called for instructors to apply a data-driven mindset to student learning ( Bass, 1999 ). Since then, educational development has matured into its own scholarly field ( McDonald & Stockley, 2008 ), and educational developers have become key players in the organizational development of higher education institutions ( Beach et al., 2016 ; Kelley et al., 2017 ). As eight educational developers working toward organizational change at a diverse group of institutions, we combined our experience and perspectives to answer the following question:

“What does it mean to take teaching and learning seriously in this moment, in the current ecosystem of higher education?”

In November 2019, this question inspired us to explore opportunities for leveraging the educational developer role to bridge boundaries and build an institutional culture focused on “learning from and with students” ( Bass et al., 2019 ). We concur with the assertion of the New Learning Compact framework ( Bass et al., 2019 ) that higher education is under-performing in whom it serves and how well it serves all learners and that for higher education to fulfill its promise, teaching and learning must be constantly re-centered at the core of institutional missions. With this in mind, we argue that taking teaching and learning seriously in this moment requires educational developers to pursue strong partnerships at multiple levels in and beyond our institutions to create meaningful change: to learn from and with one another.

Pandemic-Induced Connections

In the spring of 2020 when the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic transformed society, including higher education, many centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) found themselves suddenly playing a more central role and working with a host of new collaborators as they helped facilitate the rapid emergency-induced shift to remote instruction ( Korsnack & Ortquist-Ahrens, 2021 ). The coronavirus pandemic emphasized the need for institutions to focus on learning as a collaborative effort involving all stakeholders, not simply the thing that happens in the classroom. While the New Learning Compact ( Bass et al., 2019 ) includes full-time and adjunct “faculty” in their definitions, we propose further expanding the concept of “instructor” to include anyone who helps students develop skills and dispositions for lifelong learning.

Acknowledging that institutions may continue to operate in siloed structures such as departments and units, educational developers must build bridges across these boundaries with the purpose of building a culture in which coaches, success/academic advisors, career development centers, and administrators all recognize student learning as central to their unit’s ability to support the institutional mission. Furthermore, they must do so in ways that provide equity of access and equity of experience in higher education ( Winkelmes, 2015 ). Thus, from a learning perspective, student success can be defined as “academic achievement, engagement in educationally purposeful activities, satisfaction, acquisition of desired knowledge, skills and competencies, persistence, attainment of educational objectives, and [successful] post-college performance” ( Kuh et al., 2006 , p. 7).

This learning-focused definition of student success provides a different answer to the perennial question of higher education’s “return on investment” in an era when content knowledge is just a touch screen away. An instructor’s ability to encourage and guide students in making sense of information, integrating it across contexts, and using it creatively will be of even greater importance in the post-pandemic higher education landscape due to increased online coursework—a modality that is known to have lower retention and completion rates ( Bawa, 2016 ). If “it takes a village to raise a child,” then we believe it takes a community to effectively nurture the passion for learning in our students through demonstrating and modeling this value both within and beyond the classroom. Various units across our institutions interface with students on a daily basis, working alongside them as they experience authentic problems. We acknowledge this complicates our work in supporting teaching and learning by adding the requirement of effective relationship-building across institutional units.

Supporting Skill Transfer

A trend that exemplifies the increasing complexity of our mission is the call to support instructors in aligning course outcomes with employerdriven needs assessment data (e.g., National Association of Colleges and Employers [NACE] survey data). Consistently, employers expect and require college graduates to demonstrate “adaptability, communication skills, creativity, critical thinking and reasoning, ethical decision-making, leadership, problem identification, problem-solving, and teamwork” ( Taylor & Haras, 2020 , p. 2). Education, especially a liberal arts education, does not often claim to train students for the workforce. But the needs and requests of employers do indeed align with the habits of mind that universities aim to develop in their students, as highlighted in the American Council on Education’s recent Beyond Classroom Borders: Linking Learning and Work Through Career-Relevant Instruction report ( Taylor & Haras, 2020 ).

Leveraging connections across the institution from an educational developer perspective will help students connect the dots between classroom learning and workplace skills. Units ranging from the registrar’s office to information technology to health services play key roles in establishing safe, functional, and inclusive teaching spaces and learning experiences, but their contributions toward institutional learning goals could go further. For example, a registrar’s office representative on a general education committee will better understand institutional learning goals and thus better explain to students why they must take certain classes. Similarly, an information technology help desk that connects services such as file conversions or video editing to digital learning goals and/or workplace skills will help students understand the broader usefulness of specific course assignments. In addition, partnerships between social work or nursing faculty with health services staff would allow faculty to link classroom learning with health practices students experience in their interactions with student health services. During the pandemic, almost every institutional unit has had to learn new online collaboration tools, increasing the opportunities for data capture and even learning analytics in non-academic units. The more tools, data, and people we engage, the more complex our work becomes. We thus challenge the educational developer to engage with this complexity, to focus on “connecting” our higher education ecosystem, and to become an organizational change agent ( Grupp, 2014 ).

Building a Culture of Collaboration

This call for collaboration and convergence in higher education, “to work together to rejuvenate an antiquated system for our accelerating times” ( Davidson, 2017 ), is not ours alone. To lead a culture of collaboration, we need to identify and develop latent relationships in our work. This means educational developers need to be mindful of the inclusion of all voices, including both instructors and students. It also requires that we find common ground across units with distinct but often complementary missions such as academic skills support services, learning management system (LMS) services, instructional technology, and more. Building on the idea of a CTL as a hub ( Wright et al., 2018 ), strengthening our connections to the institutional community requires continuous addition of new spokes while maintaining the essential preexisting spokes. Both the quantity of the spokes and their quality (how supportive they are) should be continually assessed in providing an effective structure for our work. The building of relationships and the continued maintenance of preexisting partnerships are essential to the role of educational developers.

Partnerships within educational development are myriad and fall into multiple categories. Some partnerships are more common, such as with educational technology, disabilities services, libraries, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) units at our institutions. Other partnerships seem logical but may remain unrealized, such as academic advising, student affairs, and other student services. Finally, many potential partnerships at our institutions involve expanding the definition of teaching and learning to embrace extracurricular and co-curricular elements of students’ education: athletic departments, student organizations, and external stakeholders, such as employers, who assist with internships. What all of these partnerships have in common is that they widen the lens through which we view learning: who is involved and where it happens. By defining learning more holistically, we have an opportunity to redefine teaching too.

Again, the mission to take teaching and learning seriously is more expansive than a CTL can achieve on its own. We must productively collaborate with others within and beyond our institutions to realize these goals (and more). As the New Learning Compact ( Bass et al., 2019 ) provides a method to assess and prioritize institutional needs, we extend this work by making the case that broadening a definition of learning and student success requires educational developers to expand the scope of their work, develop the mindset necessary to do that, and identify new metrics to assess the effectiveness. More specifically, we argue for the development of a “wicked consciousness” to recast collaborators in and beyond the institution as partners, as defined by the Students as Partners model, and to develop new ways to assess the efficacy and impact of this work.

The Need for Collaboration

Calls for collaboration in educational development are not new. Chism (2004) argued that this meant leveraging and engaging the assistance of other stakeholders on campus. However, others have pointed out that potential partnerships are often unrealized (e.g., see Behling & Linder, 2017 ). The value of collaboration has never been so clear as during higher education’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, when failure to collaborate effectively resulted in barriers to student success. Indeed, “collaboration and exchange across difference spurs participants to rethink their assumptions” ( Bass et al., 2019 ). While the pandemic has likely resulted in some reactive or forced collaborations, a true test of what we have learned from these challenging times will be to proactively pursue a post-pandemic culture of collaboration within and outside of our institutions.

In pursuit of collaboration, Bass calls for us to broaden our scope and lead “all sectors of faculty as well as staff” to engage in educational outcomes ( Bass et al., 2019 ). We agree with Bass (2020) , who asserts that inter- and/or trans-disciplinarity “is not just about disciplines or academic expertise, but also about functional role, identity, and perspective” (p. 21). We concur with a definition of discipline that moves beyond the silos of academic disciplines to include our colleagues from across the institution: for example, seeing student affairs as a discipline ( Patterson, 2019 ) with its own holistic, student-centered worldview. As our field continues to grow, including even more perspectives can widen our lens on student experience, expanding our definition of student learning to include co-curricular and extracurricular learning: “Everyone—diverse faculty, staff, advisors, students— should be regarded as learners, inquirers, researchers, and agents of change” ( Bass, 2020 , p. 21).

Wicked Problems

We believe this culture of collaboration must extend beyond the walls of our own institutions. There is much to gain from learning with and from outside partners such as potential employers, community organizations, and government. Why take this approach? We need all of these perspectives to address what Bass calls “wicked problems,” an idea from design:

A wicked problem is a social or cultural problem that is difficult or impossible to solve for as many as four reasons: incomplete or contradictory knowledge, the number of people and opinions involved, the large economic burden, and the interconnected nature of these problems with other problems . ( Kolko, 2012 )

The problems we see within higher education, such as low graduation or retention rates, inequalities of access, and questions about the endurance of student learning, become wicked when we grow our perspective to consider not only the role of actors within the institution but also the broader systemic, historical, and cultural influences at play. We need to consider how institutional and community stakeholders contribute to or hinder these efforts.

What happens if we fail to take this broad view? We may fail to understand the true scope of the problem, and our solutions may be inadequate, if not wholly inappropriate. As one example, Bass (2020) pushes against siloed views of learning and student success. He highlights the inherent incompleteness of approaching either in isolation, pointing out that “if one understands the problem of student success as a tame problem … it is likely we will focus only [emphasis added] on strategies intended to have direct impact on student learning, persistence, and completion” ( Bass, 2020 , p. 13). Using educational equity as another example, Bass notes that more collaboration ensures equity is not relegated to any one office but integrated within faculty’s work ( Bass, 2020 ). Both examples demonstrate that solving tame problems can contribute to addressing wicked problems, but we must keep context in mind. In our increasingly corporate cultures of assessment and accountability, there is pressure to yield to a kind of short-termism, in which the need to generate returns (graduation and retention rates, greater diversity and selectivity of admissions) limits thinking to solutions that are tangible but perhaps short-sighted and therefore “tame.”

The scope of wicked problems asks for a perspective that places our strategic aims but also our expertise in a broader context. If, as Bass (2020) argues, “In a wicked problem frame, the optimization of educational practice is not the end game” (p. 28), then we need to reconsider how we define our expertise and how we ground our professional identities. If we place our identities in the context of addressing wicked problems through higher education, then we may need a new way to represent our work. Just as Barr and Tagg (1995) advanced academic development from a teaching model to a learning one, educational developers may find themselves moving even further from a transmission model to a constructivist or even emergent model ( Bass, 2020 ). Our effectiveness cannot lie solely in our knowledge of pedagogical best practices, just as instructors need more than their content knowledge. Whether it’s the model of coach ( Cruz & Rosemond, 2017 ) or the more general idea of “connector,” our work asks more of us than selling our vision to others. We need to promote transdisciplinary collaborations that are co-equal, more power-neutral, and, at least in part, exploratory.

Bridging Boundaries

In the pursuit of more transdisciplinary collaboration, it’s important to note that building bridges requires acknowledging the boundaries we cross in collaboration. Inequities and power dynamics exist within higher education: academic bullying occurs across roles (see Prevost & Hunt, 2018 ), faculty realignment (such as contingent faculty being reassigned to new academic professional tracks), and the continuing proliferation of an “adjunct underclass” ( Childress, 2019 ) all highlight the need to develop trust across differences of position and power. One way to approach this is through introspection and self-assessment. We may need to ask ourselves questions such as the following: Do our advisory boards (if we have them) have representatives from all ranks of instructors, including adjunct instructors, and do we seek new perspectives with the addition of student or faculty affairs professionals and others? How can we involve students as partners, as well as those outside of our institutions in our teaching and learning mission? Finally, how do we maintain our already tenuous identities (see Rudenga & Gravett, 2019 , 2020 ) in this expansive vision of educational development?

While we want to advocate for a teaching and learning perspective in the work of our collaborators, we may also need to integrate a student affairs lens, a faculty affairs lens, a campus life lens, an employer or community partner lens, and others into our scope of teaching and learning. We need to be willing to ask the question of what constitutes learning in this context and get an answer that we don’t anticipate, with a willingness to expand or adapt our definitions of learning. A culture of collaboration means that we are open to growth too. We build bridges not just to teach or spread our teaching and learning mission but also to allow ourselves to be changed by those with different views/perspectives within our institutions. The effort to build bridges asks us to assess honestly the extent of our contact with faculty/instructors, staff, and students: across career stages and across demographics.

These multiple perspectives, from both within and outside of our institutions, form the possibility of what Bass refers to as a convergence approach ( Bass, 2020 ). Wicked problems ask us to discover and consider a broad range of evidence and experiences. As Bass (2020) notes, “By understanding the problem of learning as a wicked problem . . . the co-evolution of the field’s problems and the tools it has to address them should radically expand our approaches toward improving education rather than narrow them” (p. 11). But how do we create a system that is likely to unearth what we don’t know, known unknowns (such as the perspectives of others) and unknown unknowns (questions we haven’t thought to ask, evidence we haven’t thought to consider)? We argue for a wicked consciousness, a persistent amalgamation of perspectives achieved only through a culture of collaboration. Kolko (2012) concurs: “Due to the system [ sic ] qualities of these large problems, knowledge of science, economics, statistics, technology, medicine, politics, and more are necessary for effective change. This demands interdisciplinary collaboration, and most importantly, perseverance.”

Framing all of this discussion, the COVID-19 pandemic and related social, global, and cultural challenges have been a stress test for the existing collaborative infrastructure of our institutions. In many cases, the crisis forced us to team up across units in response to immediate problems in need of solving. While it remains to be seen whether or not we go back to business as usual (functioning more independently and less collaboratively) post crisis, the pandemic has made real how pressing it is for everyone to see how all stakeholders support—or become a barrier to—a wider definition of student success. The immensity and interrelatedness of wicked problems call upon a more collaborative and inclusive response, guided by complementary (even competing) perspectives working in concert. Approaching a wicked consciousness requires a shift from collaboration to partnership: the orientation to learn from and with one another is what animates this effort.

From Collaboration to Partnership

Transdisciplinary collaboration asks for a willingness to recognize our collaborators, be they instructors, staff, students, or external stakeholders, in co-equal partnership. We may take this idea for granted in our relationships with colleagues while we may continue to see others through a lens of institutional hierarchy. The Students as Partners movement, embraced by numerous institutions across the United States and beyond, is an approach that invites students into collaborations with instructors, administrators, and educational developers. It is characterized by “a relationship in which all involved—students, academics, professional services staff, senior managers, students’ unions, and so on—are actively engaged in and stand to gain from the process of learning and working together” ( Healey et al., 2014 , p. 12). This perspective asks us to see students as equals, to honor their lived experience as learners, and we are challenged to “learn from and with” students ( Bass et al., 2019 ). We believe that this can serve as a model for revisiting collaborations throughout our networks, intentionally recasting them in the spirit of partnership.

Learning From and With Students

The idea of learning from students is embedded into educational development. While our most common collaborators are the instructors themselves, we often bring in the student perspective as a way to further discussions about teaching and learning (e.g., student feedback). In this sense, students are already indirect collaborators. Learning with students asks us to go further, asking what we can accomplish together. What differentiates this from collaboration is an evolving question (see Table 1 for comparison). The research on student partnerships is a growing body of scholarship focused on co-inquiry. This literature asks questions about power structures in higher education, and some believe it has the potential to disrupt traditional teaching and learning relationships ( Cook-Sather et al., 2014 ).

A Partnership Model for Educational Developers

As the rhetoric of disrupting teaching and learning through partnership can seem like heady stuff, the extent to which we can learn from and with students may be met with some skepticism, some of it reasonable and understandable. There is evidence that our students may not always be accurate judges of their learning ( Carpenter et al., 2020 ; Deslauriers et al., 2019 ), and we may hesitate to yield so much ownership to students. Limits of students’ perspectives may cause us to cast doubt on the value of seeking their input. Learning with students also requires a high degree of agency on the part of the students involved ( Weimer, 2002 ). They may have little experience with directing their educational experiences, and their shift into the position of partner may require us to solicit dialogue to empower a great sense of agency. We need to establish trustworthiness to complement our expertise ( Little & Green, 2021 ).

Skepticism notwithstanding, we also need to be critical of the state of existing partnerships, with a call to do more than adopt the appearance of partnership. A review of Students as Partners literature ( Mercer-Mapstone et al., 2017 ) found that much of the scholarship was instructor led and instructor authored; students were listed as the lead author on very few of the reviewed articles. In response, Morris (2019) calls for a shift from “students as co-enquirers” to “students as joint authors.” In turn, teachers and students “become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow” ( Freire, 1993 , pp. 79–80). We can learn from these areas of growth when cultivating our partnerships. This idea has roots in the literature of collaborative learning (e.g., Peters & Armstrong, 1998 ) but also ties back to the co-equal, constructivist approach to educational development that builds on Barr and Tagg (1995) . In addition to informing our approaches, partners can guide them. We need to be willing to yield a hand from the wheel—to share the responsibility of steering change—giving partners a chance to codetermine the direction of our co-inquiry.

Learning From and With Others

If we adopt this stance of learning from and learning with in other collaborations, one could imagine educational development partnerships across the university. Student affairs as partners, faculty affairs as partners, and so on, as well as a renewed commitment to instructors as partners (rather than clients). Whether or not these become formalized initiatives, this mindset can inform our work with colleagues: empowering the expertise of others in collaboration. Just as a Students as Partners initiative benefits from the true inclusion of student voices, our work will benefit from the inclusion of voices from those outside of our ranks who could provide new insights, connections, and the critical mass to effect change as partners.

The co-inquiry of partnership asks us to acknowledge the limits to our perspectives. It requires cultivating trust across power and asks us “to go beyond listening to the student voice” ( Healey et al., 2016 ). Matthews (2017) makes the case that Students as Partners is an open-ended strategy that asks us to let go of the need for specific outcomes. Intellectual humility ( Whitcomb et al., 2017 ) is required to invite differences into our partnerships, into our scholarship, and into our definitions of teaching and learning. We have made strides in this direction through the growth of discipline-based educational research (DBER) and disciplinary approaches in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). In seeking partnerships, we ought not to smooth over differences but to embrace them. In bringing different perspectives to light, partners have the chance to understand one another’s intentions ( Abbot & Cook-Sather, 2020 ).

Partnership in Action

Maintaining effective relationships with staff, instructors, and students represents an opportunity to learn from one another and to collaborate within our institutions. In addition, educational developers are well positioned to encourage and promote constructive discussions about teaching and learning beyond the academy’s boundaries. The understanding of teaching and learning theory and data could be better leveraged to help students transfer skills and knowledge developed in college classrooms to life beyond institutional walls. This is especially critical in the current ecosystem of higher education. Even before the recent COVID-19 pandemic, state appropriations for higher education were decreasing following a peak in 2001 ( Tandberg & Laderman, 2018 ), and although most analyses confirmed the value of a college degree, some economists and policy-makers have questioned higher education’s “return on investment” ( Abel & Deitz, 2014 ; Carnevale et al., 2019 ).

In an era when higher education has been called upon to identify and implement “high impact practices” ( Kuh, 2008 ) such as undergraduate research, civic and global engagement, and experiential learning, instructors have sought support and resources from CTLs. As a result, educational developers have been actively involved in creating opportunities for collaboration, connection, and problem-solving ( Beach et al., 2016 ; Grupp & Little, 2019 ). The role of educational developers as leading from the middle to move campus-wide initiatives forward can be further explored in areas such as career discernment and development. For example, CTLs may offer workshops that connect teaching approaches to appreciative advising, growth mindset, and theories of psycho-social development. Through collaboration and problem-solving, educational developers may better serve the institution by working with campus colleagues to integrate external stakeholders into their work, such as prospective employers, internship site coordinators, and local community leaders.

Prospective Employers as Partners

Educational developers traditionally focus on improving teaching and learning based on their knowledge of SoTL literature and their institutional knowledge of practices that are effective. However, in order to facilitate connections with potential employers and local businesses, it might be beneficial for educational developers to facilitate translations between SoTL and occupational skills language. For example, educational developers could introduce instructors to resources on occupational skills (e.g., Occupational Information Network, https://www.onetonline.org , sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration). If instructors and students can translate between course and program learning goals and the occupational skills of interest to employers, students will be more effective at communicating their relevant skills to potential employers. Communication between these groups can improve cross-unit goal alignment by improving explanations from multiple stakeholders about how courses and programs relate to occupational skills. These connections are valuable for institutions that serve adult learners who are often already in the workforce, and they are important for students in institutions with a liberal arts focus as well ( Gallagher, 2018 , 2020 ).

Internship Site Coordinators as Partners

Educational developers and vibrant CTL communities also maximize the impact of out-of-classroom experiences by fostering an atmosphere in which student experiences are connected back to course and program learning goals via a student-focused course design. For example, a neurobiology class that draws on out-of-classroom student experiences in day cares, hospitals, nursing homes, and cafés to enrich classroom discussions fulfills the promise of learning from and with students while also revealing to students the connections between classroom learning and areas of possible professional practice. Repetition of this experience over multiple years reinforces this reflective metacognitive practice as a way to fully develop a growth mindset approach to workplace experiences.

Community Leaders as Partners

One learning framework that can be effectively used by educational developers and instructors in partnership with students and career development, study abroad, or community relations offices is Kolb’s 1984 model of Experiential Learning ( Kolb, 1984 ; Kolb & Kolb, 2005 ). This model’s emphasis on interactive learning and information processing ( McCarthy, 2016 ) complements more current research demonstrating the importance of metacognition ( Ohtani & Hisasaka, 2018 ). Recent educational practice has acknowledged the benefits of internships, study abroad, and service learning, but these experiences are not always fully connected to course, program, or institution-level learning goals. For example, while study abroad inevitably involves active learning experiences, a recent study ( Strange & Gibson, 2017 ) reports that students found “that the most influential parts of their programs were the field trips, self-reflection, community interaction, and writing aspects” and concludes that these components relate closely to Experiential Learning Theory components. While further research is needed to determine how best to optimize the learning opportunities inherent in experiential settings (study abroad, internships, field work), there is a role for educational developers in these conversations. Helping instructors and partners (study abroad offices, community partners) find ways to integrate student learning gains with the rest of their education is key in supporting students’ postgraduate pursuits.

An explicit focus on student learning with respect to personal and professional goals can also be beneficial for students who participate in shadowing or internship experiences. These types of career preparation or volunteer experiences rarely link planned activities to desired learning outcomes. In the best-case scenario, students can create their own experiential learning “syllabus” that must be approved by both the instructor advisor and the experience supervisor. Journaling ensures that students engage in reflective observation and abstract conceptualization as their experience progresses. This linkage between classroom practice and, most commonly, career-related outof-classroom experiences joins the student, instructor advisor, staff member, and internship or workplace supervisor in a shared endeavor to maximize the student’s learning from the experience. This network of relationships may work most effectively when guided or curated by an educational developer.

Re-Assessing Our Work

We have said that it takes a community to effectively nurture the passion for learning in our students. Moving this effort forward (by modeling the value of learning within and beyond the classroom) will require more collaborators, more voices, and more partners, so that it becomes a community effort rather than a fragmented response (see Table 1 ). We also need tools to get started. Bass et al.’s (2019) New Learning Compact offers strategies for effecting change across all levels of our institutions. Though its scope and purpose are much larger, we are excited by its potential to be used as a “how-to” or aspirational inventory for educational developers working to be more “active, imaginative, and capable ‘principal investigators’ of the asymmetry between the classroom and the world” ( Bass, 2020 , p. 19). Finally, in addition to partners and tools, we need a way of assessing this community effort.

Investigating Primary AND Secondary Impacts

CTLs build programming and engagement opportunities designed to have positive effects on the instructors and broader academic community (i.e., students, staff, and administrators). We call the outcomes of these programs, services, and events the primary impacts of the center. Many instruments exist to assess this work, notably Hines’s (2017) Field-Tested Model, the Defining What Matters framework ( Collins-Brown, Brown et al., 2018 ), and the Center for Teaching and Learning Matrix ( Collins-Brown, Haras et al., 2018 ). However, the secondary effects (or emergent outcomes) of educational development can take many forms, including those that come about as a result of spontaneous or serendipitous interactions—those that are not planned and therefore not assessed, or not assessable, by traditional measures. These unplanned interactions can lead to deeper connections as they happen organically, rely on common interests or needs, and are maintained because they have mutual impact. But how do we measure them?

In the absence of specific data that can tell us exactly how effective we are in our role as “connector,” we must find other means to assess and improve in this aspect of our role. The New Learning Compact offers strategies and principles to guide this work. And we see patterns in the New Learning Compact framework that echo Bass’s earlier call to action in “The Scholarship of Teaching: What’s the Problem?” Specifically, he calls for teachers to forgo a mindset wherein problems are seen as a need for remediation (i.e., an outcomes-oriented approach) and instead approach them as investigators (i.e., a processoriented approach): “Changing the status of the problem in teaching from terminal remediation to ongoing investigation is precisely what the movement for a scholarship of teaching is all about” ( Bass, 1999 ).

In efforts to reassess our work, we may need to advocate even more for the value of qualitative data in our work. While we can solicit instructor feedback and undertake needs assessments, we might also be more careful observers of casual, or backstage, conversations that can have surprising power ( Roxå & Mårtensson, 2009 ). These interactions build our campus network; expand our understanding of individual instructors and their needs and interests; and give us more specialized knowledge of groups, disciplines, resources, and the history of the institution and its people. These ripples , often unseen, have the power to shape a culture of teaching and learning at our institutions. Participants in a course design academy share their experience with colleagues, a workshop on retrieval leads to discussions about how to help students study more effectively, and CTLs take a lead role in shaping the implementation of peer review of teaching on their campuses. We might understand the relationship of primary and secondary impacts as a cycle: we seek to impact, we are impacted by others, and we hope to have greater impact.

While our effectiveness in the role of educational developer is typically assessed through measurable impacts (attendance, diversity of attendees, instructor learning, and instructor change of attitudes), our secondary impacts are those that come about as a result of our role as “connectors.” We believe these impacts are correlated with the quantity and quality of our network, relationships, and connections across the institution and with external stakeholders; however, what comes out of these connections is where the real value of the educational developer is revealed. Measuring such impacts is a worthy goal. The challenge is not unlike the challenges of measuring student learning—we can assess whether a student has achieved specific learning outcomes, but it’s not always possible to claim that the teaching was the reason for this success. Indeed, ascribing a cause-and-effect relationship is challenging when it comes to the secondary impacts of educational development. This shift is a prerequisite to a much larger shift: the shift from evaluating our work within the context of our institution to evaluating our work within the context of addressing larger, more wicked problems.

Bass (2020) challenges us to see learning as a wicked problem: “the long-term problem of reimagining and enacting education so that it plays a meaningful role in creating a more just society and fostering a sustainable human future” (p. 10). Throughout this article, we have argued for a culture of collaboration, more specifically a culture of partnership. We have declared that our impact will depend on our ability to listen effectively to others and to bring others into the core of a university’s mission: teaching and learning. We believe that reconsidering our work in terms of partnership asks us to reassess our work in terms of our relationships. Returning to the Hub Model of CTLs ( Wright et al., 2018 ), we have claimed the importance of both developing new spokes and maintaining the thickness of preexisting spokes as a way to strengthen our connection to the institutional community. We aim to assess our work through both the quantity and quality of relationships. Yet while we may be able to demonstrate relationships built, how do we know if we’re making progress on our wicked problems?

Pandemic Reflections

In late fall 2019, we first imagined “taking teaching and learning seriously, in this moment” in terms of the growth and maintenance of the partnerships, both formal and informal, we were developing with campus instructors, staff, and students. As we moved forward from spring 2020 into the continuing uncertainties of subsequent semesters, the concept of collaboration narrowed to essential questions of assisting instructors and other campus stakeholders to deliver their services with greater flexibility. Goals became constrained to that which was needed to preserve the institution’s core mission—education. Anecdotally, our response to the pandemic was driven by collaborative and creative problem-solving rather than by ready-made, evidence-based solutions, as this moment was unlike any other experience we could draw on. In a larger context, a tension developed between immediate problem-solving and initiating collaborations, bridge-building, and developing partnerships in sustainable ways. There was no time to consider future sustainability; the conditions required immediate actions. As Bass reflected on the porous barriers between higher education and the outside world, COVID-19, an accompanying economic crisis, and protests against systemic racism have required that educational developers and CTLs deal with these immediate and real challenges of teaching and learning in an uncertain, unprecedented environment.

As we negotiated the summer of 2020 with its demands and challenges of preparing for an ambiguous fall semester, we experienced a tension between negotiating the immediate needs and taking teaching and learning, writ large, seriously. We focused on internet access, how to navigate social distancing in classrooms, and how to hold up our educational ideals in a time when so much felt compromised. Simultaneously, the recognition of disproportionate impacts of the pandemic on persons of color in the United States combined with continuing police killings of black men and women spurred a summer of protests that placed a persistent reality for many into the public consciousness. Many of us struggled with not only our workload but also our sense of purpose. Yet “solutions to wicked problems can be only good or bad, not true or false. There is no idealized end state to arrive at, and so approaches to wicked problems should be tractable ways to improve a situation rather than solve it” ( Kolko, 2012 ). Thus, the shift toward wicked consciousness asks only to begin: to inform ourselves, to ask better questions, all in the service of beginning again.

Looking Forward With Wicked Consciousness

Broadening the current scope of educational development and moving forward into the future are not incompatible. The idea of taking teaching and learning seriously needs to be serious minded as well as open minded. Bass (2020) makes this clear: “In a wicked problem stance, some learning design research (pedagogical and curricular) should be carried out solely for the purpose of discovering the ‘adjacent possible’ [citing Stuart Kauffman]” (p. 23). As we embrace the idea that the pivot from the spring of 2020 has become a protracted change in the face of unprecedented circumstances, our answer to Bass’s question of “What’s the problem now?” is evolving. Thus, our response to the idea of taking teaching and learning seriously can evolve while we don’t lose sight of existing ideas, research, and potential solutions. Efforts to study the efficacy of online teaching and learning predate our current circumstances, and ideas about engagement online can find a place alongside our present, ongoing concerns about mental health, burnout, and managing the changes we’ve asked of instructors and students alike (and educational developers too).

Finally, taking teaching and learning seriously in this moment may mean that our educational development takes on more of a moral dimension. It’s a choice to value an approach that focuses our efforts on wicked problems. Evidence can inform our decisions, but it can’t make our decisions for us. The wicked problems of climate change, racial injustice, and all forms of cultural instability have become even more pressing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and ask us to help students integrate their learning into a wider context. We know from decades of research on learning transfer that learners may not make active connections between what they learn in our institutions and the outside world unless they are prompted to do so in multiple contexts ( Barnett & Ceci, 2002 ). In our roles, we can create opportunities for instructors to consider how to connect their teaching (and student learning) to solve the big problems in society, and we must.

The question of what it means to take teaching and learning seriously in this moment is indeed a wicked one. Yet we have probed questions that can guide our response. What does it mean to take ourselves and our partners seriously as teachers? As learners? Is it to expand the idea of discipline to include partners within and outside of our institutions, to expand the label of instructor to include all who are responsible for the teaching mission of our institutions, and to embrace the label of learner as something we have in common with our students? When we consider the possibility of wicked consciousness, we believe it can come only from deconstructing the barriers and silos we’ve put between departments, between teachers and learners, between external and academic stakeholders, and between academia and the outside world. Bass would argue that these boundaries are porous, if illusory, and in this moment, it is critical that educational developers create meaningful and lasting partnerships that not only solve problems “but also restlessly and authentically open up the questions of learning and higher education as if our human future depended on it” ( Bass, 2020 , p. 28). That, to us, would be the very definition of taking teaching and learning seriously in this moment.

Biographies

Adam H. Smith , PhD, is an Assistant Research Professor at the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at the Pennsylvania State University. Adam received his PhD in Fine Arts from Texas Tech University, where he also began work in faculty development. He currently co-facilitates POD Scholarly Reads through the Scholarship Committee and serves as incoming Co-Chair of the Mindfulness and Contemplative Pedagogy special interest group.

Laurie L. Grupp , PhD, is the Dean of the School of Education and Human Development at Fairfield University. Her research interests include bilingual special education, change leadership, educational development, and reflective practice. In her educational development and leadership roles, she has engaged in efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion while supporting faculty in all aspects of their professional growth.

Lindsay Doukopoulos , PhD, is Associate Director of the Biggio Center at Auburn University. A creative writer by training, her research now focuses on the use of instructional technologies to motivate and assess learning, scaling up faculty development for active learning buildings, gamification, and the use of storytelling to build equity and empower innovative teaching. She is former chair and ongoing member of the Digital Resources and Innovations committee for the POD Network.

John C. Foo , PhD, is the Assistant Director of Faculty Programs and Services for Science and Engineering at Columbia University’s Center for Teaching and Learning. He develops and facilitates programming and services for faculty instructors to enhance STEM education and make it more equitable for and accessible to Columbia’s diverse student population. John received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Cornell University.

Barbara J. Rodriguez , PhD, is a Regional Director of Academic Programs for the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) and adjunct English faculty at Central Carolina Community College. She serves as a mentor for the Higher Learning Commission’s Assessment Academy, a coach for the Pathways Collaborative, and a peer reviewer for the Community College Journal of Research and Practice .

Janel Seeley , PhD, is director of the Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Wyoming. She received her doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Tennessee. Her interests include collaborative communication and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). She is past chair of the SoTL special interest group committee for the POD Network and a co-leader for the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning’s (ISSOTL) International Collaborative Writing Group public SoTL initiative.

Linda M. Boland , PhD, is the Associate Provost for Faculty, Director of the Teaching and Scholarship Hub, and Professor of Biology at the University of Richmond in Virginia. Her areas of interest in faculty development include early and mid-career faculty development, inclusive teaching, sustaining scholarship, leadership development, and building effective partnerships to promote institutional effectiveness.

Laurel L. Hester , PhD, was Assistant Provost and Associate Professor of Biology at Keuka College, where she managed a broad portfolio that included assessment, institutional effectiveness, accreditation, and compliance. Pandemic-induced career re-evaluation led her to become an Investigative Scientist for the National Science Foundation Office of Inspector General. She notes that the views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of the National Science Foundation or the United States.

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Effective in-service training design and delivery: evidence from an integrative literature review

Julia bluestone, peter johnson, judith fullerton, catherine carr, jessica alderman, james bontempo.

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Contributed equally.

Received 2012 Aug 8; Accepted 2013 May 2; Collection date 2013.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

In-service training represents a significant financial investment for supporting continued competence of the health care workforce. An integrative review of the education and training literature was conducted to identify effective training approaches for health worker continuing professional education (CPE) and what evidence exists of outcomes derived from CPE.

A literature review was conducted from multiple databases including PubMed, the Cochrane Library and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) between May and June 2011. The initial review of titles and abstracts produced 244 results. Articles selected for analysis after two quality reviews consisted of systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and programme evaluations published in peer-reviewed journals from 2000 to 2011 in the English language. The articles analysed included 37 systematic reviews and 32 RCTs. The research questions focused on the evidence supporting educational techniques, frequency, setting and media used to deliver instruction for continuing health professional education.

The evidence suggests the use of multiple techniques that allow for interaction and enable learners to process and apply information. Case-based learning, clinical simulations, practice and feedback are identified as effective educational techniques. Didactic techniques that involve passive instruction, such as reading or lecture, have been found to have little or no impact on learning outcomes. Repetitive interventions, rather than single interventions, were shown to be superior for learning outcomes. Settings similar to the workplace improved skill acquisition and performance. Computer-based learning can be equally or more effective than live instruction and more cost efficient if effective techniques are used. Effective techniques can lead to improvements in knowledge and skill outcomes and clinical practice behaviours, but there is less evidence directly linking CPE to improved clinical outcomes. Very limited quality data are available from low- to middle-income countries.

Conclusions

Educational techniques are critical to learning outcomes. Targeted, repetitive interventions can result in better learning outcomes. Setting should be selected to support relevant and realistic practice and increase efficiency. Media should be selected based on the potential to support effective educational techniques and efficiency of instruction. CPE can lead to improved learning outcomes if effective techniques are used. Limited data indicate that there may also be an effect on improving clinical practice behaviours. The research agenda calls for well-constructed evaluations of culturally appropriate combinations of technique, setting, frequency and media, developed for and tested among all levels of health workers in low- and middle-income countries.

Keywords: In-service training, Continuing professional education, Continuing medical education, Continuing professional development

The need to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of both pre-service education and continuing professional education (CPE) (in-service training) for the health workforce has never been greater. Decreasing global resources and a pervasive critical shortage of skilled health workers are paralleled by an explosion in the increase of and access to information. Universities and educational institutions are rapidly integrating different approaches for learning that move beyond the classroom [ 1 ]. The opportunities exist both in initial health professional education and CPE to expand education and training approaches beyond classroom-based settings.

An integrative review was designed to identify and review the evidence addressing best practices in the design and delivery of in-service training interventions. The use of an integrative review expands the variety of research designs that can be incorporated within a review’s inclusion criteria and allows the incorporation of both qualitative and quantitative information [ 2 ]. Five questions were formulated based on a conceptual model of CPE developed by the Johns Hopkins University Evidence-Based Practice Center (JHU EPC) for an earlier systematic review of continuing medical education (CME) [ 3 ]. We asked whether: 1. particular educational techniques, 2. frequency of instruction (single or repetitive), 3. setting where instruction occurs, or 4. media used to deliver the instruction make a difference in learning outcomes; and, 5. if there was any evidence regarding the desired outcomes, such as improvements in knowledge, skills or changes in clinical practice behaviours, which could be derived from CPE, using any mixture of technique, media or frequency.

Inclusion/exclusion criteria

Articles were included in this review if they addressed any type of health worker pre-service or CPE event, and included an analysis of the short-term evaluation and/or assessment of the longer-term outcomes of the training. We included only those articles published in English language literature. These criteria gave priority to articles that used higher-order research methods, specifically meta-analyses or systematic reviews and evaluations that employed experimental designs. Articles excluded from analysis were observational studies, qualitative studies, editorial commentary, letters and book chapters.

Search strategy

A research assistant searched the electronic, peer-reviewed literature between May and June 2011. The search was conducted on studies published in the English language from 2000 to 2011. Multiple databases including PubMed, the Cochrane Library and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) were utilized in the search. Medical subject headings (MeSH) and key search terms are presented below in Table  1 .

Medical subject headings (MeSH) and key search terms

Study type, quality assessment and grade

An initial review of titles and abstracts produced 244 results. We identified the strongest studies available, using a range of criteria tailored to the review methodology. Initial selection criteria were developed by a panel of experts. Grading and inclusion criteria are presented in Table  2 . The grading criteria were adapted from the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (OCEMB) levels of evidence model [ 4 ]. Grading of studies included within systematic reviews was reported by authors of those reviews and was not further assessed in this integrative review. Therefore, reference to quality of studies in our report refers to those a priori judgments. Only tier 1 articles (grades 1 and 2) were included in our analysis.

Grading criteria

NA not applicable.

After prioritization of the articles, 163 tier 1 articles were assessed by a senior public health professional to determine topical relevance, study type and grade. A total of 61 tier 1 studies were selected to be included in the analysis following this second review. An additional hand search of the reference lists cited in published studies was conducted for topics that were underrepresented, specifically on the frequency and setting of educational activities. This search added eight articles for a total of 69 studies, including 37 systematic reviews and 32 randomized controlled trials (RCTs), see inclusion process for articles included in analysis, Figure  1 .

Inclusion process for articles included in the analysis.

A data extraction spreadsheet was developed, following the model offered in the Best Evidence in Medical Education (BEME) group series [ 5 ] and the conceptual model and definition of terms offered by Marinopoulos et al. in the JHU EPC earlier review of CME [ 3 ]. Categorization decisions were necessary in cases when the use of terminology was inconsistent with the Marinopoulos et al. definitions of terms for CPE [ 3 ]. For example, an article that analysed 'distance learning’ as a technique and used the computer as the medium to deliver an interactive e-learning course was coded and categorized as an 'interactive’ technique delivered via 'computer’ as the medium of instruction. See illustration of categorization terminology in panels A, B, and C, Figure  2 , for an illustration of how terminology was used to categorize and organize articles for analysis.

Illustration of categorization terminology in panels a-c.

Selected articles that best represent common findings and outcomes (effects) of CPE are discussed in the results and discussion sections; the related tables present all the articles analysed and categorized for that topic, and each article is included only once. Relevant information obtained from educational psychology literature is referenced in the discussion.

The articles or studies that specifically addressed educational techniques are summarized in Table  3 . Technique refers to the educational methods used in the instruction. Technique descriptions are based on the Marinopoulos et al. definitions of terms [ 6 ] and reflect the approaches defined in the articles analysed.

Summary of articles focused on techniques

a JHU EPC systematic review. C Control, CME Continuing medical education, I Intervention, JHU EPC Johns Hopkins University Evidence-Based Practice Center, NR Not reported, PBL problem-based learning, POC point-of-care, RCT randomized controlled trial.

Case-based: use of created or actual clinical cases that present materials and questions

Though case-based learning was not specifically compared with other techniques in the literature reviewed, it was often noted as a method in articles that discussed interactive techniques. Case-based learning was also noted as a technique used for computer-delivered CPE courses. Triola et al. compared types of media utilized for case-based learning and found positive learning outcomes both with the use of a live standardized patient and a computer-based virtual patient [ 7 ].

Didactic/lecture: presenting knowledge content; facilitator determines content, organization and pace

Lecture was often referred to in the literature as traditional instruction, lecture-based or didactic teaching. Didactic instruction was not found to be an effective educational technique compared with other methods. Two studies [ 8 , 9 ] found no statistical difference in learning outcomes, and three studies found didactic to be less effective than other techniques [ 10 - 12 ]. Reynolds et al. compared didactic instruction with simulation. The study was limited by small sample size (n = 50), but still demonstrated that the simulation group had a significantly higher mean post-test score ( P <0.01) and overall higher learner satisfaction [ 12 ].

Several systemic reviews that compared didactic instruction to a wide variety of teaching approaches also identified didactic instruction as a less effective educational technique [ 13 - 15 ].

Feedback: providing information to the learner about performance

Multiple articles identified feedback as important for outcomes [ 16 - 18 ]. Herbert et al. compared individualized feedback in the form of a graphic (a prescribing portrait based on personal history of drug-prescribing practices) to small group discussion of the same material and found that both the feedback and the live, interactive session were somewhat effective at changing physician’s prescribing behaviours [ 16 ]. The Issenberg et al. systematic review of simulation identified practice and feedback as key for effective skill development [ 17 ]. A Cochrane review of the evidence to support CPE suggested the importance of feedback and instructor interaction in improving learning outcomes [ 18 ].

Games: competitive game with preset rules

The use of games as an instructional technology was addressed in one rigorous systematic review. The authors found only a limited number of studies, which were of low to moderate methodological quality and offered inconsistent results. Three of the five RCTs included in the review suggested that educational games could have a positive effect on increasing medical student knowledge and that they include interaction and allow for feedback [ 19 ].

Interactive: provide for interaction between the learner and facilitator

Five articles specifically compared interactive CPE to other educational techniques. De Lorenzo and Abbot found interactive techniques to be moderately superior for knowledge outcomes than didactic lecture [ 10 ]. Two other studies found interactive techniques were more effective when feedback from chart audits was added to the intervention [ 16 , 20 ].

Three systematic reviews and one meta-analysis specifically noted the importance of learner interactivity or engagement in learning in achieving positive learning outcomes [ 21 - 24 ] (refer to summary of articles focused on outcomes).

Point-of-care (POC): information provided as needed, at the point of clinical care

Two articles and one systematic review specifically addressed point-of-care (POC) as a technique. The systematic review included three studies and concluded that while the findings were weak, they did indicate that POC led to improved knowledge and confidence [ 25 ]. In an examination of media, Leung et al. determined that handheld devices were more effective than print-based, POC support, although outcome measures were self-reported behaviours [ 26 ]. You et al. found improved performance on a procedure among surgical residents who received POC mentoring via a video using a mobile device, compared with those who received only didactic instruction [ 27 ].

Problem-based learning (PBL): present a case, assign information-seeking tasks and answer questions about the case; can be facilitated or non-facilitated

Four articles specifically compared problem-based learning (PBL) to other methods. One study identified PBL as slightly better [ 11 ], and two studies indicated it to be relatively equal to didactic instruction [ 8 , 9 ]. A systematic review of 10 studies on PBL reported inconclusive evidence to support the approach, although several studies reported increased critical thinking skills and confidence in making decisions [ 28 ].

Reminders: provision of reminders

The Zurovac et al. study conducted in Kenya found that using mobile devices for repetitive reminders resulted in significant improvement in health care provider’s case management of paediatric malaria, and these gains were retained over a 6-month period [ 29 ]. Intention-to-treat analysis showed that correct management improved by 23.7% (95% confidence interval (CI) 7.6 to 40.0, P <0.01) immediately after intervention and by 24.5% (95% CI 8.1 to 41.0, P <0.01) 6 months later, compared with the control group [ 29 ]. Reminders were also noted as an effective technique by two of the systematic reviews [ 13 , 14 ].

Self-directed: completed independently by the learner based on learning needs

This term was difficult to extract for analysis due to widely varying terminology. Some authors used the term 'distance learning’, and some used it to define the medium of delivery, rather than technique. This analysis specifically discusses articles that were consistent with the description for self-directed learning, even if the authors used different terminology.

A recent systematic review identified that moderate-quality evidence suggests a slight increase in knowledge domain compared with traditional teaching, but notes that this may be due to the increased exposure to content [ 30 ]. One RCT found modest improvements in knowledge using a self-directed approach, but noted it was less effective at impacting attitudes or readiness to change [ 31 ].

Multiple studies focused on use of the computer as the medium to deliver instruction and noted that self-directed instruction was equally (or more) effective as instructor-led didactic or interactive instruction and potentially more efficient.

Simulation may include models, devices, standardized patients, virtual environments, social or clinical situations that simulate problems, events or conditions experienced in professional encounters [ 17 ]. Simulation was noted as an effective technique for promotion of learning outcomes across the systematic reviews, particularly for the development of psychomotor and clinical decision-making skills. The systematic reviews all highlighted inconclusive and weak methodology in the studies reviewed, but noted sufficient evidence existed to support simulation as useful for psychomotor and communication skill development [ 32 - 34 ] and to facilitate learning [ 35 ]. The systematic review by Lamb suggests that patient simulators, whether computer or anatomic models, are one of the more effective forms of simulations [ 36 ].

Outcomes of the four separate RCTs indicated simulation was better than the techniques to which they were compared, including interactive [ 37 , 38 ], didactic [ 12 ] and problem-based approaches [ 35 ]. A study by Daniels et al. found that although knowledge outcomes were similar between the interactive and simulation groups, the simulation team performance in a labour and delivery clinical drill was significantly higher for both shoulder dystocia (11.75 versus 6.88, P <0.01) and eclampsia (13.25 versus 11.38, P  = 0.032) at 1 month post-intervention [ 38 ].

Simulation was also found to be useful for identifying additional learning gaps, such as a drill on the task of mixing magnesium sulfate for administration [ 39 ]. A systematic review focused on resuscitation training identified simulation as an effective technique, regardless of media or setting used to deliver it [ 40 ].

Team-based: providing interventions for teams that provide care together

Articles discussed here focused on the technique of providing training to co-workers engaged as learning teams. One systematic review of eight studies found that there is limited and inconclusive evidence to support team-based training [ 41 ]. Two of the articles reporting on the same CPE study did not identify any improvements in performance or knowledge acquisition with the addition of using a team-based approach [ 39 , 42 ].

This review included consideration of frequency, comparing single versus repetitive exposure. The findings regarding frequency are summarized in Table  4 .

Summary of articles focused on frequency

CME  Continuing medical education, CPG  Clinical practice guideline, HP  Haematuria and priapism, ISE  Interactive spaced education, RCT  Randomized controlled trial, SIA  Staghorn calculi, infertility, and antibiotic use, WBT  Web-based teaching.

The three articles focused on frequency all support the use of repetitive interventions. These studies evaluated repetition using the Spaced Education platform (now called Qstream), an Internet-based medium that uses repeated questions and targeted feedback. The evidence from these three articles demonstrated that repetitive, time-spaced education exposures resulted in better knowledge outcomes, better retention and better clinical decisions compared with single interventions and live instruction [ 43 - 45 ].

The use of repetitive or multiple exposures is supported in other systematic reviews of the literature, as well as one RCT conducted in Kenya that used repeated text reminders and resulted in a significant improvement in adherence to malaria treatment protocols [ 29 ].

Setting is the physical location within which the instruction occurs. We identified three articles that looked specifically at the training setting. The findings regarding setting are summarized in Table  5 . Two of them stemmed from the same intervention. Crofts et al. specifically addressed the impact of setting and technique (team-based training) on knowledge acquisition and found no significant difference in the post-score based on the setting [ 42 ]. A systematic review of eight articles evaluating the effectiveness of team-based training for obstetric care did not find significant differences in learning outcomes between a simulation centre and a clinical setting [ 41 ].

Summary of articles focused on setting

EBM  Evidence-based medicine, I  Intervention.

Coomarasamy and Khan conducted a systematic review and compared classroom or stand-alone versus clinically integrated teaching for evidence-based medicine (EBM). Their review identified that classroom teaching improved knowledge, but not skills, attitudes or behaviour outcomes; whereas clinically integrated teaching improved all outcomes [ 46 ]. This finding was supported by the Hamilton systematic review of CPE, which suggests that teaching in a clinical setting or simulation setting is more effective (Table  1 ), as well as the Raza et al. systematic review of 23 studies to evaluate stand-alone versus clinically integrated teaching. This review suggested that clinically integrated teaching improved skills, attitudes and behaviour, not just knowledge [ 18 ].

Media refers to the means used to deliver the curriculum. The majority of RCTs compared self-paced or individual instruction delivered via computer versus live, group-based instruction. The findings regarding media are summarized in Table  6 .

Summary of articles focused on media used to deliver instruction

C  Control, CME  Continuing medical education, CPR Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, EBM  Evidence-based medicine, I Intervention, NR  Not reported, PDA  Personal digital assistant.

POC  Point-of-care, RCT  Randomized controlled trial.

Live versus computer-based

Live instruction was found to be somewhat effective at improving knowledge, but less so for changing clinical practice behaviours. When comparing live to computer-based instruction, a frequent finding was that computer-based instruction led to either equal or slightly better knowledge performance on post-tests than live instruction. One of the few to identify a significant difference in outcomes, Harrington and Walker found the computer-based group outperformed the instructor-led group on the knowledge post-test and that participants in the computer-based group, on average, spent less time completing the training than participants in the instructor-led group [ 47 ].

Systematic reviews indicate that the evidence supports the use of computer-delivered instruction for knowledge and attitudes; however, insufficient evidence exists to support its use in the attempt to change practice behaviours. The Raza Cochrane systematic review identified 16 randomized trials that evaluated the effectiveness of Internet-based education used to deliver CPE to practicing health care professionals. Six studies showed a positive change in participants’ knowledge, and three studies showed a change in practice in comparison with traditional formats [ 18 ]. One systematic review noted the importance of interactivity, independent of media, in achieving an impact on clinical practice behaviours [ 48 ].

One article assessed the use of animations against audio instructions in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) using a mobile phone and found the group that had audiovisual animations performed better than the group that received live instruction over the phone in performing CPR; however, neither group was able to perform the psychomotor skill correctly [ 49 ]. Leung et al. found providing POC decision support via a mobile device resulted in slightly better self-reporting on outcome measures compared with print-based job aids, but that both the print and mobile groups showed improvements in use of evidence-based decision-making [ 26 ].

The systematic review of print-based materials conducted by Farmer et al. did not find sufficient evidence to support the use of print media to change clinical practice behaviours [ 50 ]. A comparison of the use of print-based guidelines to a live, interactive workshop indicated that those who completed live instruction were slightly better able to identify patients at high risk of an asthma attack. However, neither intervention resulted in changed practice behaviours related to treatment plans [ 51 ].

Multiple systematic reviews caution against the use of print only media, concluding that live instruction is preferable to print only. Another consistent theme was support for the use of multimedia in CPE interventions.

Outcomes are the consequences of a training intervention. This literature review focuses on changes in knowledge, attitudes, psychomotor, clinical decision-making or communication skills, and effects on practice behaviours and clinical outcomes. All of the articles that focused on outcomes were systematic reviews of the literature and are summarized in Table  7 .

Summary of articles focused on outcomes : knowledge , attitudes , types of skills , practice behaviour , clinical practice outcomes

a JHU EPC systematic review. CME  Continuing medical education, JHU EPC Johns Hopkins University Evidence-Based Practice Center.

The weight of the evidence across several studies indicated that CPE could effectively address knowledge outcomes, although several studies used weaker methodological approaches. Specifically, computer-based instruction was found to be equally or more effective than live instruction for addressing knowledge, while multiple repetitive exposures leads to better knowledge gains than a single exposure. Games can also contribute to knowledge if designed as interactive learning experiences that stimulate higher thinking through analysis, synthesis or evaluation.

No studies or systematic reviews looked only at attitudes, but CPE that includes clinical integration, simulations and feedback may help address attitudes. The JHU EPC group systematic review evaluation of the short- and long-term effects of CPE on physician attitudes reviewed 26 studies and, despite the heterogeneity of the studies, identified trends supporting the use of multimedia and multiple exposures for addressing attitudes [ 6 ].

Several systematic reviews looked specifically at skills, concluding that there is weak but sufficient evidence to suggest that psychomotor skills can be addressed with CPE interventions that include simulations, practice with feedback and/or clinical integration. 'Dose-response’ or providing sufficient practice and feedback was identified as important for skill-related outcomes. Other RCTs suggest clinically integrated education for supporting skill development. Choa et al. found that neither the audio mentoring via mobile nor animated graphics via mobile resulted in the desired psychomotor skills, reinforcing the need for practice and feedback for psychomotor skill development identified in other studies [ 49 ].

Two systematic reviews focused on communication skills and found techniques that include behaviour modeling, practice and feedback, longer duration or more practice opportunities were more effective [ 52 , 53 ]. Evidence suggests that development of communication skills requires interactive techniques that include practice-oriented strategies and feedback, and limit lecture and print-based materials to supportive strategies only.

Findings also suggest that simulation, PBL, multiple exposures and clinically integrated CPE can improve critical thinking skills. Mobile-based POC support was found to be more useful in the development of critical thinking than print-based job aids.

Several systematic reviews specifically looked at CPE, practice behaviours and the behaviours of the provider. These studies found, despite reportedly weak evidence, that interactive techniques that involved feedback, interaction with the educator, longer durations, multiple exposures, multimedia, multiple techniques and reminders may influence practice behaviours.

A targeted review of 37 articles from the JHU EPC review on the impact of CPE on clinical practice outcomes drew no firm conclusions, but multiple exposures, multimedia and multiple techniques were recommended to improve potential outcomes [ 6 ]. Interaction and feedback were found to be more useful than print or educational meetings (systematic review of nine articles) [ 24 ], but print-based unsolicited materials were not found to be effective [ 50 ]. The systematic review of live, classroom-based, multi-professional training conducted by Rabal et al. found 'the impact on clinical outcomes is limited’ [ 54 ].

The heterogeneity of study designs included in this review limits the interpretations that can be drawn. However, there is remarkable similarity between the information from studies included in this review and similar discussions published in the educational psychology literature. We believe that there is sufficient evidence to support efforts to implement and evaluate the combinations of training techniques, frequency, settings and media included in this discussion.

Avoid educational techniques that provide a passive transfer of information, such as lecture and reading, and select techniques that engage the learner in mental processing, for example, case studies, simulation and other interactive strategies. This recommendation is reinforced in educational psychology literature [ 55 ]. There is sufficient evidence to endorse the use of simulation as a preferred educational technique, notably for psychomotor, communication or critical thinking skills. Given the lack of evidence for didactic methods, selecting interactive, effective educational techniques remains the critical point to consider when designing CPE interventions.

Self-directed learning was also found to be an effective strategy, but requires the use of interactive techniques that engage the learner. Self-directed learning has the additional advantage of allowing learners to study at their own pace, select times convenient for them and tailor learning to their specific needs.

Limited evidence was found to support team-based learning or the provision of training in work teams. There is a need for further study in this area, given the value of engaging teams that are in the same place at the same time in an in-service training intervention. This finding is especially relevant for emergency skills that require the collaboration and cooperation of a team.

Repetitive exposure is supported in the literature. When possible, replace single-event frequency with targeted, repetitive training that provides reinforcement of important messages, opportunities to practice skills and mechanisms for fostering interaction. Recommendations drawn from the educational psychology literature that address the issue of cognitive overload [ 56 ] suggest targeting information to essentials and repetition.

Select the setting based on its ability to deliver effective educational techniques, be similar to the work environment and allow for practice and feedback. In this time of crisis, workplace learning that reduces absenteeism and supports individualized learning is critical. Conclusions from literature in educational psychology reinforce the importance of 'situating’ learning to make the experience as similar to the workplace as possible [ 57 ].

Certain common themes emerged from the many articles that commented on the role of media in CPE effectiveness. A number of systematic reviews suggest the use of multimedia in CPE. It is important to note that the studies that found similar knowledge outcomes between computer-based and live instruction stated that both utilized interactive techniques, possibly indicating the effectiveness was due to the technique rather than the media through which it was delivered. While the data on use of mobile technology to deliver CPE were limited, the study by Zurovac et al. indicated the potential power of mobile technology to improve provider adherence to clinical protocols [ 29 ]. Currently, there is unprecedented access to basic mobile technology and increasing access to lower-cost tablets and computers. The use of these devices to deliver effective techniques warrants exploration and evaluation, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

CPE can positively impact desired learning outcomes if effective techniques are used. There are, however, very limited and weak data that directly link CPE to improved clinical practice outcomes. There are also limited data that link CPE to improved clinical practice behaviours, which may influence the strength of the linkage to outcomes.

Limitations

The following limitations apply to the methodology that we selected for this study. An integrative review of the literature was selected because the majority of published studies of education and training in low- and middle-resource countries did not meet the parameters required of a more rigorous systematic review or meta-analysis. The major limitation of integrative reviews is the potential for bias from their inclusion of non-peer-reviewed information or lower-quality studies. The inclusion of articles representing a range of rigor in their research design restricts the degree of confidence that can be placed on interpretations drawn by the authors of those articles, with the exception of original articles that explicitly discussed quality (such as systematic reviews). This review did not make an additional attempt to reanalyse or combine primary data.

Therefore, for purpose of this article, we also graded all articles and included only tier 1 articles in the analysis. This resulted in restriction of information on certain topics for this report, although a wider range of information is available.

We faced an additional limitation in that many articles included in the review were neither fully transparent nor consistent with terminology definitions used in other reports. This is due in part to the fact that we went beyond the bio-medical literature, to include studies conducted in the education and educational psychology literature, as was appropriate to the integrative review methodology. Certain topics were underdeveloped in the literature, which limits the interpretation that can be drawn on these topics. Other topics are addressed in studies conducted using lower-tier research methodologies (for example observational and/or qualitative studies) that were not included in this article. In addition, the overwhelming majority of studies focused on health professionals in developed or middle-income countries. There were very few articles of sufficient rigor conducted in low- and middle-income countries. This limits what we can say regarding the application of these findings among health workers of a lower educational level and in lower-resourced communities.

In-service training has been and will remain a significant investment in developing and maintaining essential competencies required for optimal public health in all global service settings. Regrettably, in spite of major investments, we have limited evidence about the effectiveness of the techniques commonly applied across countries, regardless of level of resource.

Nevertheless, all in-service training, wherever delivered, must be evidence-based. As stated in Bloom’s systematic review, 'Didactic techniques and providing printed materials alone clustered in the range of no to low effects, whereas all interactive programmes exhibited mostly moderate to high beneficial effect. … The most commonly used techniques, thus, generally were found to have the least benefit’ [ 14 ]. The profusion of mobile technology and increased access to technology present an opportunity to deliver in-service training in many new ways. Given current gaps in high-quality evidence from low- and middle-income countries, the future educational research agenda must include well-constructed evaluations of effective, cost-effective and culturally appropriate combinations of technique, setting, frequency and media, developed for and tested among all levels of health workers in low- and middle-income countries.

Abbreviations

BEME: Best Evidence in Medical Education; CI: Confidence interval; CINAHL: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature; CME: Continuing medical education; CPE: Continuing professional education; CPR: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation; EBM: Evidence-based medicine; JHU EPC: Johns Hopkins University Evidence-Based Practice Center; MeSH: Medical subject headings; OCEMB: Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine; PBL: Problem-based learning; POC: Point-of-care; RCT: Randomized controlled trial.

Competing interests

The authors declare they have no competing interests.

Authors’ contributions

JB performed article reviews for inclusion, synthesized data and served as primary author of the analysis and manuscript. PJ conceived the study, participated in its design and coordination, and provided significant input into the manuscript. JF provided guidance on the literature review process, grading and categorizing criteria, and quality review of selected articles, and participated actively as an author of the manuscript. CC and JBT contributed to writing of the manuscript. JA searched the literature, performed initial review and coding, and contributed to selected sections of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Contributor Information

Julia Bluestone, Email: [email protected].

Peter Johnson, Email: [email protected].

Judith Fullerton, Email: [email protected].

Catherine Carr, Email: [email protected].

Jessica Alderman, Email: [email protected].

James BonTempo, Email: [email protected].

Acknowledgments

We thank the Jhpiego Corporation for support for this research. We thank Dana Lewison, Alisha Horowitz, Rachel Rivas D’Agostino and Trudy Conley for their support in editing and formatting the manuscript. We also thank Spyridon S Marinopoulos, MD, MBA, from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, for his initial input into the study and links to relevant resources. The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Jhpiego Corporation.

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Wes Mountain/The Pharmaceutical Journal

Why are increasing numbers of students dropping out of pharmacy education?

To meet growing patient demand for pharmacy services, NHS England has built an overarching plan to increase the pharmacy workforce, while upskilling it at the same time.

NHS England’s long-term workforce plan, published in June 2023, says that “education and training places for pharmacists are estimated to need to grow by 31–55% to meet the demand for pharmacy services”, setting out its ambition “to increase training places for pharmacists by nearly 50% to around 5,000 places by 2031/2032”. It adds that NHS England plans to start with initial growth in 2026/2027, “when places will increase by 15%”. ​1​

The plan, coupled with reforms from the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) to its ‘Standards for the initial education and training of pharmacists’ in 2021 — meaning pharmacists will become independent prescribers at the point of registration from 2026 — is intended to reduce pressure on the NHS and improve patient access to care ​2​ .

However,  data provided to The Pharmaceutical Journal by the GPhC in August 2024  revealed that pharmacy students are leaving the MPharm programme at increasing rates. In 2021/2022, 889 students (20%) of the 4,505 new students who began the first year of the MPharm that year did not progress to the second year. This was a 47% increase on the number of students who withdrew the previous year, when 604 students opted not to progress from the first year in 2020/2021 to the second year.  

The MPharm programme is a four-year university degree that is the first step toward becoming a qualified pharmacist in the UK. After graduating, trainee pharmacists will undertake a year of foundation training before taking a registration assessment set by the GPhC.

The issue is not limited to first-year pharmacy students. The number of students across all years of all programmes who withdrew from university has trended upwards since the pandemic year of 2020/2021.

Data published by the Student Loans Company (SLC), which is overseen by the Department of Education, show that, while the number of students who withdrew from university in England, Wales and Northern Ireland dropped in 2020/2021, it sharply increased beyond pre-pandemic levels in the two subsequent years (see Figure 1). 

This number, which does not include students from Scotland as their finance is managed by Student Awards Agency Scotland, is on the decline again in 2023/2024, but it is still higher than it was before COVID-19.

Impact of COVID-19

The reasons that students have for leaving their university course “are multifactorial and, very often, individual”, says a spokesperson for the University of Sunderland — adding that these reasons could include “deferrals, leave of absences and students who repeat a year following a failed module or modules”.

Data show that 10% of MPharm students at the University of Sunderland (n=13/129) did not progress to the second year in 2019/2020. This increased to 28% (n=32/116) in 2022/2023. 

The time period in this dataset was significantly influenced by COVID, where restrictions and other personal impacts led to deferrals Spokesperson for the University of Sunderland

The university was one of 19 pharmacy schools that responded to a freedom of information request from The Pharmaceutical Journal, asking for data on the number of students who began the first year of the MPharm programme and progressed to the second year for the four academic years from 2019/2020 to 2022/2023. The figures provided by the GPhC and schools of pharmacy do not include those retaking the year for any reason (Figure 2).

“The time period in this dataset was significantly influenced by COVID, where restrictions, including on travel, and other personal impacts led to deferrals, which very much affected individual student progression between years of study,” the spokesperson says.

The University of East Anglia (UEA) faced a similar issue during the pandemic. Since 2019/2020, the proportion of students who did not progress to the second year increased from 42% (n=57/135) to 53% in 2020/2021 (n=85/161), and then to 62% (n=101/163) in 2021/2022. Similar to the national picture, for the 2022/2023 cohort, the percentage of students who withdrew after the first year then fell to 54% (n=94/173) — still above pre-pandemic levels.

 “Students choose to leave their course for different reasons, whether related to their university experience or for other external reasons,” says a spokesperson for UEA.

“The COVID pandemic has undoubtedly had a detrimental impact on progression rates, and our School of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Pharmacology has invested more resource in recent years into earlier intervention by ensuring student advisors are proactively contacting students who may be struggling or not attending lectures.”

Emeka Onwudiwe, president of the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association and a fourth year MPharm student at UEA, says that online learning as a result of the pandemic meant students were unable to ease into the course as they usually would in person.

“A lot of people didn’t have that easing-in period, because it was all online. So, we had to take a step back,” he says. 

“That easing-in period allows you to learn your revision techniques, allows you to understand your exam preparation … and how you get your mindset into doing the exam.” 

The way the in-person exams hit me was a big shock, and I really had to adjust myself to different learning habits and different revision techniques Emeka Onwudiwe, president of the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association

Speaking from his own experience, Onwudiwe adds: “The way the in-person exams hit me was a big shock, and I really had to adjust myself to different learning habits and different revision techniques.”

Onwudiwe warns that the effects of the pandemic are continuing to have a “detrimental effect” on students and that it will take “a couple of years” for progression rates to recover.

MPharm content

Onwudiwe also attributes high non-continuation rates to the “content heavy” programme, likening it to a medical degree. 

“Pharmacy is on par with medicine,” he says. “I have a lot of medical students that are friends of mine, and I see the workload that they do, and they even say, ‘You know what, pharmacy is probably harder than medicine’.”

He explains that MPharm exams are also difficult because “we only have multiple choice for 50% [of the exams]; the other 50%, it’s all from your brain”.

“If you don’t have the content in your head, unfortunately, in the exam, you can’t make it up,” he says. “In an MCQ … you can do process of elimination; you kind of find your way through it and … hopefully pick the best [answer].” But with the long-form answer questions, he says, “you have to have the knowledge”.

This is a new exam format, says Onwudiwe, which was introduced at UEA to better test student’s clinical knowledge before becoming qualified as independent prescribers at the point of registration from 2026.

At the University of Brighton, a spokesperson says that MPharm students in particular face challenging progression requirements as they “are only allowed to progress after they have completed and passed all assessments and modules for that year of their course”.

They add that trailing — where students can progress to the next year of a course and retake a module they failed in the previous year — or compensation of mandatory modules — where students can earn credit for a module they did not pass based on their overall academic performance — “is not allowed on the MPharm course, which also affects progression rates compared with other courses”.

At the University of Brighton, the proportion of students who did not progress to the second year of the MPharm programme almost doubled in four years from 21% (n=29/141) in 2019/2020 to 41% (n=47/116) in 2022/2023. 

“The lower progression rates for 2022 and 2023 reflect the effects of students returning to in-person and face-to-face assessments after COVID, which we know many students found challenging,” says a spokesperson for the university.

However, it is taking steps to improve progression rates across all MPharm years. “Measures put in place have included: a dedicated member of MPharm staff responsible for overseeing the academic progress of part-time repeating students; attendance and engagement monitoring of all students; and provision of extra support via our Student Skills Hub,” the spokesperson adds.

As a result, the university says the first-year progression rate has increased from 59% in 2022/2023 to 74% in 2023/2024 and non-progression rates have now returned to pre-COVID levels. 

Mental health support

In addition to COVID-19 and the rigorousness of the MPharm, mental health difficulties are also a significant driving force behind dropout rates. An analysis of data from surveys of students between 2016/2017 and 2022/2023 by the Policy Institute at King’s College London and the Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education found in September 2023 that mental health is “by far the most common main reason someone considered dropping out of university”, with financial difficulties also being a significant factor that is “interlinked” with mental health ​3​ .

The Policy Institute’s analysis found that between the 2016/2017 and 2022/2023 academic years, the proportion of undergraduate students at universities across the UK who said they had experienced mental health difficulties rose from 6% to 16% ​3​ .

We must ensure that students receive the necessary academic, financial and mental health support throughout their studies Claire Anderson, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

“Although some of this increase occurs around the time of the pandemic, and there is a large (32%) rise in the past 12 months focused around the point of the cost of living crisis,” the analysis said.  

“We must ensure that students receive the necessary academic, financial and mental health support throughout their studies, including access to the learning support fund alongside other healthcare professionals,” says Claire Anderson, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and professor of social pharmacy at the University of Nottingham’s school of pharmacy.

Through the  NHS Learning Support Fund , provided by the NHS Business Services Authority, students can apply for a training grant of up to £5,000 per academic year, claim money back for travel and accommodation costs on placements, and claim up to £3,000 if they are experiencing financial hardship. The fund is available to eligible students studying certain healthcare courses, such as dentistry, midwifery and nursing, at a university in England. However, pharmacy students are not currently eligible for the funding. 

In response to the rising dropout rates, a spokesperson at the GPhC said that this was something the organisation is monitoring. “We collect data from the pharmacy schools on the progression rates for MPharm students on an annual basis, along with a wide range of other information, and carefully examine this data,” they said. 

“We will then follow up with any schools where we have identified any concerns relating to significant trends within the data, as part of our ongoing quality assurance of the schools of pharmacy.”

A spokesperson for NHS England said it is “continuing to work closely with the Pharmacy Schools Council to understand and monitor student numbers and their progression, including supporting progression through the foundation training programme”.

The Pharmacy Schools Council declined to provide a comment.

Without a fix, increasing rates of pharmacy students dropping out of the MPharm programme run the risk of affecting healthcare provision in the UK, impacting an already-stretched NHS. If NHS England is to realise its plan of expanding pharmacy training places to meet increasing demand for pharmacy services, universities will need to work hard to keep students enrolled in pharmacy schools.

• 1. NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. NHS England. June 30, 2023. https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/nhs-long-term-workforce-plan-2/
• 2. Standards for the initial education and training of pharmacists. General Pharmaceutical Council. 2021. https://assets.pharmacyregulation.org/files/2024-01/Standards for the initial education and training of pharmacists January 2021 final v1.4.pdf
• 3. Sanders M. Student mental health in 2023. Kings College London. 2023. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/policy-institute/assets/student-mental-health-in-2023.pdf

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237A Attendance records

The principal of a State school must ensure that an attendance record is kept for each student who is enrolled at the school.

The attendance record must be in the form and contain the information specified in rules made under subsection (3).

The Secretary may make rules setting out administrative and procedural requirements relating to attendance records, including (without limitation) rules—

specifying the form and content of attendance records:

relating to the collection, storage, and disclosure of information contained in attendance records:

specifying the circumstances in which any exceptions to any general requirements for specific school types may be made.

A principal of a State school must comply with rules made under subsection (3).

Rules made under this section are secondary legislation ( see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

Section 237A : inserted , on 1 October 2024 , by section 43 of the Education and Training Amendment Act 2024 (2024 No 40).

• The Parliamentary Counsel Office
• www.govt.nz