Mette Krogh Christensen, Jette Henriksen, Kristian Raun Thomsen, Ole Lund and Anne Mette Mørcke
Drawing on positioning theory, the purpose of this paper is to characterize the activities and positions of students and supervisors at workplaces and on-campus skills training…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on positioning theory, the purpose of this paper is to characterize the activities and positions of students and supervisors at workplaces and on-campus skills training sites across the higher health professional educations of medicine, sports science, and nursing. Furthermore, the study explored the impact of work-based learning (WBL) and skills training on students’ personal professional identity development.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative case study was conducted across six workplace sites and three on-campus skills training sites with 20 days of observation and 21 in-depth interviews. The data were inductively analyzed resulting in the identification of 12 characteristic narratives. This was followed by abductive analysis using Harré’s concept of positioning as the theoretical framework.
Findings
Across the three higher health professional educations, work-based and on-campus skills training sites were characterized by two learning spaces with distinct positions, rights, and duties. The WBL sites gave the students rich opportunities to position themselves, act independently, and behave as professionals seriously striving for mastery. On the on-campus sites, the students behaved less seriously, and were conscious of their rights to try out things, get support, and have fun.
Research limitations/implications
The authors recommend that future studies explore aspects of professional identity formation due to its consequences for curriculum design, including the distribution of simulated spaces and professional spaces in students’ learning environments.
Originality/value
This study adds to the empirical evidence and conceptual frameworks of personal and shared professional identity development in the field of skills and WBL, and it underlines the ongoing value of Harré’s positioning theory in educational research.
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Kristoffer Brix Olesen, Mette Krogh Christensen and Lotte Dyhrberg O'Neill
Due to rapid changes in the future labor market, transferable skills are recognized as a vital learning outcome for students in undergraduate higher education. However…
Abstract
Purpose
Due to rapid changes in the future labor market, transferable skills are recognized as a vital learning outcome for students in undergraduate higher education. However, ambiguities surrounding the concept and content of transferable skills hamper the actual teaching and learning of transferable skills. Consequently, there is a great need for an overview of the literature on transferable skills to qualify and develop the approaches to transferrable skills in higher education. This study aims to outline a typology of how transferable skills are conceptualized in health sciences education, that is, medicine, nursing and related health professionals’ education.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was a mixed studies literature review, which included quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies. A seven-stage sequential exploratory synthesis of the included studies was conducted.
Findings
This review showed that transferable skills reflected three main conceptualizations: Program Requirements, Employability and Holistic Development. Overall, the global methodological quality of the empirical studies of interventions to further transferable skills development in health science education was weak.
Research limitations/implications
This study aids clear conceptualization in future empirical studies.
Practical implications
By distinguishing between three main conceptualizations of transferable skills, this study's typology supports alignment in transferable skills curricula because conceptually sound learning objectives provide teachers and students in health sciences education with a clear purpose and direct educators' choice of relevant teaching and assessment strategies.
Originality/value
This review – the first of its kind – contributes to conceptualization of transferable skills as the basis for curriculum development and research.
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Rune Dall Jensen, Sissel Ravn and Mette Krogh Christensen
Education of the surgeon and development of surgical expertise have been debated for centuries. Today, research in surgical education applies terms and methods from other…
Abstract
Purpose
Education of the surgeon and development of surgical expertise have been debated for centuries. Today, research in surgical education applies terms and methods from other performance domains such as sport and music. However, there still seems to be a lack of consensus as to how talent may be brought into the discourse about surgical education. Especially, when it comes to identifying and developing trainees who in the future will perform better than the average surgeon.
Design/methodology/approach
This five-step scoping study aims to map existing literature about talent identification, talent development and development of expertise in the domains of surgery, sport and music in the period of 1985-2014.
Findings
A total of 242 studies, divided in the four domains of surgery (69 studies), sport (115 studies), music (34 studies) and cross-disciplinary studies (24 studies) published in the period 1985-2014 were included.
Originality/value
Informed by the performance domains of sports and music and their inclusion of a holistic, ecological approach to research, this study suggests that research in surgical education may benefit from broadening its view on talent by including psychosocial variables and environmental, demographic and structural influencers when considering how surgical talent may be identified and developed.
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Flemming Juul Christiansen and Peter Heyn Nielsen
Minority governments are more common in Denmark than in any other parliamentary democracy. Internationally, the literature associates minority governments with short-lived…
Abstract
Minority governments are more common in Denmark than in any other parliamentary democracy. Internationally, the literature associates minority governments with short-lived, inefficient governments. Yet this is not the case in Denmark. Here, successive governments have served full terms in recent decades and managed to pass large numbers of substantive reforms. This chapter considers how Danish minority governments manage to cope so well and whether polarisation and populism may challenge the solutions to this apparent paradox. The legislative bargaining and agreements (politiske forlig) between government and opposition parties are highly institutionalised, giving opposition parties policy influence and procedural privileges almost akin to cabinet parties – but only on the items on which agreement has been reached. The government is therefore able to maintain flexibility. Danish governments have also increased their hierarchical coordination, both in the form of policy through coalition agreements and internally in the form of cabinet committees and a strengthened Prime Minister's Office. The argument here is that these changes make it easier for a government to negotiate as a coherent unit, and the fact that the parties on the respective ideological wings of the Folketing are also included in negotiations and agreements means that polarisation does not seem to affect minority government performance.
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Anne‐Mette Lilleoere and Ebba Holme Hansen
Because selling innovative products is crucial to its livelihood, the pharmaceutical industry has a fundamental need to share knowledge to stimulate the process of knowledge…
Abstract
Purpose
Because selling innovative products is crucial to its livelihood, the pharmaceutical industry has a fundamental need to share knowledge to stimulate the process of knowledge creation. This study seeks to explore knowledge‐sharing enablers and barriers in pharmaceutical R&D.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study was carried out in a pharmaceutical company in Denmark. R&D professionals were asked to identify organizational enablers and barriers to knowledge sharing. Their accounts were processed as text during workshops. Data were condensed thematically. The analysis was combined with the conceptualization of tacit and explicit knowledge as proposed by Nonaka and Takeuchi.
Findings
The research shows that R&D professionals have different views and practices regarding engaging in knowledge sharing. This reveals that knowledge sharing is multi‐faceted and that one standard for R&D professionals does not exist. The enablers identified recognized the use of tacit knowledge. The existence of enablers and barriers with oppositional influence on knowledge‐sharing practices is evident. Furthermore, synergy is identified in the knowledge‐sharing enablers provided that the settings fostering personal closeness to colleagues are stimulated. Physical proximity to colleagues therefore has obvious influence on knowledge‐sharing practices.
Research limitations/implications
This study was based on a single case study. The extent to which the findings can be generalized to other industries is unknown.
Practical implications
The findings have implications for R&D managers who must be aware of these professional diversities in order to enhance knowledge‐sharing practices. Attention should also be given to the synergies hidden in knowledge‐sharing enablers.
Originality/value
Focused implementation of enablers will increase knowledge‐sharing practices and minimize barriers.