Generalizations # 74 Johansson, N. et al.(2022)

At the current stage this project is about finding statistical generalizations in qualitative, danish educational research. That is to check my assumption that there is a tendency to make statistical generalizations on the basis of observations which cannot support such generalizations.

I will be posting excerpts from all those studies which to me seem problematic. This post is part of that and this is a link to the first post in the line.

Johansson, N., Nøhr, S., Klitgaard, T. L., Stentoft , D., & Vardinghus-Nielsen, H. (2022)

Reference:

Johansson, N., Nøhr, S., Klitgaard, T. L., Stentoft , D., & Vardinghus-Nielsen, H. (2022). Clinical problem-based medical education: A social identity perspective on learning. Dansk Universitetspædagogisk Tidsskrift, 17(33). https://doi.org/10.7146/dut.v17i33.132130

Abstract:

Medical education programs are responsible for educating medical students to meet the demands of a complex and fast-changing healthcare system, that requires competent, reflective, robust, and engaged students who can collaborate in interdisciplinary settings. In this article, we examine and discuss how social identities affect medical students’ learning approaches regarding how, what, and why they learn in clinical problem-based medical education. We conducted an ethnographic study at Aalborg University Hospital, involving 7 medical students for 240 hours of participant observation and 8 hours of semi-structured interviews. During the analysis, we found that medical students’ social identities as well as the clinical problem-based practice were strongly associated with how, what, and why they learn. We highlight that there is a very fine balance to be found between the assumed and assigned social identities in clinical problem-based medical education if a learning outcome of high quality is to be ensured.

Testable hypothesis?:

Nej: "Regarding the challenging transition described above, this article will examine and discuss how clinical PBL sets the scene for medical students’ social identity development with a particular focus on how, what, and why they learn." s80

Method/materials:

"The first author carried out 240 hours of direct observation and eighthours of individual semi-structured interviews of seven medical students during their seventh, eighth, and tenth clinical semesters   at Aalborg University Hospital." s82

Statistical generalizations:

1) "In    our study, we found that medical students’ social identities as well as the clinical PBL were strongly associated with how, what, and why they learn. When medical students think, act, and behave as a medical student, they learn  through  reflection,  role-modeling,  direct  supervision,  feedback,  and  peer  learning.  When  they  behave,  think,  and  act  as  a  colleague,  they  focus  on  social  interaction,  norms,  values,  language,  collaboration,  and communication. And finally, when medical students behave, think, and act as a nearly physician, they primarily learn  and  embody  the  craft  of  medicine  by  active  engagement  and  participation  in  clinical  practice  through  indirect  supervised  patient  care,  carrying  out  examinations,  and  by  taking  responsibility. " s92-93 

2) "By only assuming and assigning social identity as a medical student, the students will  miss  important  situated  knowledge  and  learning  from  the  clinical  practice,  but on  the  other  hand,  if  the  medical  students  primarily  assume  and  assign  social  identity  as  a  nearly  physician,  they  will  miss  academic  outcome  and  important  time  to  critically  reflect  upon  own  professional practice. " s93

Comments:

I have flagged this study for generalizations of type 4 and 5 (see typology).

There are many untested assumptions about how humans work in the first quote. Suffice it to say that this idea of changing modes has never been proven and certainly not in the present study. More locally the large swathe of concepts laid forth to describe the type of learning associated with the three social identities, can (like descriptions from this months star signs) be used to describe most people most of the time. Also it blows apart any concept of learning as different from just change. These are conceptual comments however, the problem is the assumption that this theoretical construction will hold as a good description of anything in similar contexts in the future, which makes it fundamentally a statistical generalization (type 4).

The second quote makes recommendations, the implication being that such and such are supported by the study in question, and will have specific effects in the future (type 5).