Scholarship, Research, and Publishing in Medical Education
SCHOLARSHIP
About Scholarship
Scholarship is intended to both develop and enhance the importance of teaching and learning through systematic study, public dissemination, and critique. Scholarship differs from professional development in that faculty receive knowledge through professional development and contribute knowledge through scholarship. Scholarship is the critical component that allows the field of teaching and learning to move forward and not only meet the needs of today’s medical education community but to anticipate the needs and innovative methods for addressing them in the future.
“For any activity to be designated as scholarship, it should manifest at least three key characteristics: It should be public, susceptible to critical review and evaluation, and accessible for exchange and use by other members of one's scholarly community. We thus observe, with respect to all forms of scholarship, that they are acts of the mind or spirit that have been made public in some manner, have been subjected to peer review by members of one's intellectual or professional community, and can be cited, refuted, built upon, and shared among members of that community. Scholarship properly communicated and critiqued serves as the building block for knowledge growth in a field.” --Lee Shulman (1998)
AAMC Standards for Educational Scholarship
The above 43 page report from the AAMC's Group on Educational Affairs (GEA) 2006 Consensus Conference on Educational Scholarship outlines a set of documentation standards based on more than fifteen years of literature and the findings. Five educator activity categories (teaching, curriculum, advising/mentoring, educational leadership/administration, and learner assessment) were confirmed and contents delineated with examples created to illustrate documentation of quantity, quality and engagement in educational scholarship. Implementation of these standards should parallel the development of an infrastructure to support educators. Infrastructure elements include sustained faculty development programs for educators, e-learning platforms for delivery of instruction, access to resources and journals in the field, peer review mechanisms, consultation and support for curriculum development, evaluation and educational measurement.
Make It Cocunt Twice: Clinical Scholarship=Clinical Practice
This was the title of a workshop presented by Craig Roth, MD, on 3/26/2008.
Synopsis and handout from 3/26/2008 workshop
Fincher R-M et al. Scholarship in Teaching: An Imperative for the 21st Century. Academic Medicine 2000;75:887-894.
Designing and Evaluating Scholarly Educational Projects
This was the title of a workshop presented by Majka Woods, PhD, on 4/2/2009. View her PowerPoint presentation.
RESEARCH IN MEDICAL EDUCATION
Guidelines for Conducting Research
The University of Minnesota Institutional Research Board (IRB) provides guidelines for conducting research related to human subjects’ safety and ethics. All medical education research must go through the IRB review process although it may be appropriate to have either an expedited or exempt reveiw.
There are five exempt application forms available for research such as educational tests; surveys; interviews; observation of public behavior; studies of existing data, documents, records, pathological specimens, or diagnostic specimens; consumer acceptance or taste testing.
The IRB reviews research projects which involve human subjects to ensure that two broad standards are upheld: first, that subjects are not placed at undue risk; second, that they give uncoerced, informed consent to their participation.
Forms for Conducting Educational Research in the Medical School at the University of Minnesota
For conducting medical education research, use the IRB application form and brief guidelines titled “Social & Behavioral Sciences Application Form.”
The form titled “Consent Form Template for Social & Behavioral Science studies” is also used for conducting research in medical education.
Research at the University of Minnesota Medical School
This site links you to various resources, primarily relating to clinical research.
PUBLISHING
Recent Articles by the University of Minnesota Medical School Faculty and Students
Resources for Publising
- Tips for Greater Success in Writing Journal Articles by Roger Hiemstra, Professor and Chair, Emeritus, Syracuse University
- Parsell, Glennnys and Gligh, John (1999) ‘AMEE Guide No. 17: Writing for journal publication,' Medical Teacher, 21:5, 457-468. (pdf)
- Lin A E, Writing for Scientific Publication: Tips for Getting Started. Clinical Pediatrics, Vol. 45, No. 4, 295-300 (2006)
Pediatricians in training and clinical practice may be eager to submit their first scientific publication by writing a letter to the editor, case report, review article, or short clinical series. Unfortunately, the would-be author encounters a literary developmental delay when facing the blank page or computer screen. This article is dedicated to the novice author and offers practical tips on writing the first manuscript. Authors are encouraged to draw from their extensive experience writing other materials and to approach the task in a sys tematic way. Computer technology and software developments should facilitate the process.
AAMC MedEdPORTAL
The MedEdPORTAL is a resource designed to help faculty publish and share educational resources. For high quality teaching enhancement resources, enter the text "teaching" in the keyword search field, then click on the "Submit" button.
