Abstract
Alongside an overview of knowledge in research-based practice, this chapter integrates a case study of doctoral education. The summation of the two provides an insight into how processes of perspective transformation can be integrated into the skills development of critical reflection and reflexivity, which characterise formative assessment and feedback in doctoral education. This is framed by interactive dialogue with module facilitators and serves to develop doctoral researcher capacity and capability in acknowledging researcher positionality in question-led research. Integrating perspective transformation both encourages and supports the theoretical underpinning of research design and methodology and permits delineation of epistemic, metacognitive, and cognitive approaches as interdependent lenses. The case study provides an opportunity to debate the concepts of personal and professional identity within doctoral research and uses formative assessment and feedback as the vehicle through which robust methodological design can be driven.
TopIntroduction
‘Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.’
(David Kolb, 2014)
This now seminal quote from Kolb (2014), frames the concept of Experiential Learning Theory firmly as a mechanism of evaluating the effectiveness of Higher Education Institutions in preparing the world for what is now a knowledge economy. Their curricula reflect and support this. This chapter provides both an insight into a context specific Professional Doctorate programme in the United Kingdom, which the author leads, alongside considering the nature of knowledge in applied praxis, which educators can reflect upon
The Professional Doctorate at the University of Sunderland is a suite of multi-disciplinary doctoral (Quality Assurance Agency Level 8) qualifications encompassing a generic Professional Doctorate (DProf), the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA), the Doctor of Education (EdD) and the Doctorate of Podiatric Medicine (DPM). The University is a post-92 institution with a strong historical legacy of work-based teaching serving traditional regional industries of engineering, mining, and one hundred years if its flagship Pharmacy programme, which enrolled an initial cohort of students early in the 20th Century. This doctoral pathway incorporates a one-year pre-supervisory taught element. This ensures that candidates entering the supervisory stage of the programme have a strong Level 8 foundational knowledge of doctoral research design and methodology alongside gaining an underpinning knowledge of ontological, epistemological, and philosophical theory of direct relevance to practice based research. Candidates are taught as an academic cohort, which integrates block study attendance with weekly online group tutorial provision. They come from an array of professional backgrounds, typically but not exclusively from Business, the UK Police Service Nursing, Midwifery, Pharmacy and the Allied Health Professions, Education and a range of industrial and commercial settings, Following these three preparatory modules, students then enter the research phase of the programme, during which they are designated a Director of Studies and a Co-Supervisor until they complete the programme (usually between four to five years from the start of the programme).
TopDesign Strategy
Integrating the concepts of transformative learning and assessment as both processes and drivers of formative assessment as an integral part of metatheory has direct relevance to time, context and culture (Boström et al, 2018) all of which are relevant and influence contribution to the knowledge at the front line of work-based praxis (Shaw, 2018). All concepts of transformative learning and assessment can be constructively aligned with the complex ambiguity of the workplace, since they begin with the recognition of disorienting dilemmas that characterise the ‘real world’ (Wilhelm, Förster & Zimmermann, 2019).
In the clear delineation between the concepts of transformation and transformative learning and assessment as processes it is critical introspection as part of reflective practice which can lead to profound change on both an individual and collective contribution to professional practice (Fleming, 2018). As such this is integrated into processes of formative assessment as a mechanism of evaluating the perspective lens of students in their transformative experiences across diverse signature disciplines and pedagogies (Searle et al, 2021).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Signature Pedagogy: The term signature pedagogy, originally presented by Lee Shulman, refers to the forms or styles of teaching and instruction that are common to specific disciplines, areas of study, or formal professions.
Ontology: Ontology is the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of existence and being.
Metacognition: Metacognition refers to the process and conceptual basis of thinking about the processes and outcomes of thinking.
Formative Assessment: Formative assessments are a dynamic process of regular, informal assessments that are used by academic educators to assess ongoing student understanding and to iteratively inform interventional teaching strategies.
Professional Identity: The term 'professional identity' refers to a recognisable and enduring set of characteristics, attributes, beliefs from collective and individual experience against which people define themselves in a professional role.
Epistemology: Epistemology is the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion.
Dialogic Feedback: Dialogic feedback is learning about and from feedback that takes place through dialogue and involves students in interpretational meaning making about the feedback.
Critical Introspection: Critical Introspection is the process of making meaning from the combination of lived experiences and its situated content.
Metatheory: Metatheory is a higher order theory about theories, permitting the analysis, comparisons, and evaluation of competing bodies of ideas.
Constructive Alignment: Constructive Alignment is a teaching principle that combines constructivism, the idea that learners construct or create meaning out of learning activities.