CRADLE goes to AMEE 2018
1 November 2018
The Association for Medical Education Europe (AMEE) conference for 2018 was held in Basel, Switzerland. It is one of the largest health professions education conferences in the world, this year with over 3,800 delegates. It is known for being absolutely overwhelming, with 37 parallel sessions, including three symposia per session.
A key learning experience for me was the pre-conference workshop I attended on Qualitative Research Methods, which was run by the EXQUISITE (European center of eXcellence in QUalitative Inquiry and Study In Training and Education) group. This workshop was of particular interest to me as I noted the facilitators had also published a range of “how to” papers on qualitative research in The Clinical Teacher, starting with ‘How to write a good research question‘. I was originally alerted to their existence as the accompanying editorial, ‘Taking qualitative research to the next level‘ referenced a paper in the same journal written by Rola and myself, ‘Undertaking and reporting qualitative research‘.
The workshop was a great experience and refresher on qualitative research methods, and I gained a further understanding of methods I haven’t used yet in my own research, including Foucauldian discourse analysis and phenomenography. The activities we participated in have also given me new ideas for ways to facilitate workshops, so it was doubly useful for me to attend.
Another exciting event was the European launch of Learning and Teaching in Clinical Contexts, edited by Clare Delany and Elizabeth Molloy. The CRADLE team contributed to a number of chapters, including ‘Peer learning in clinical placements’ (myself and Phillip Dawson), ‘Identifying and working with underperformance’ (Margaret Bearman and student Damian Castanelli), ‘Ensuring assessment builds capacity for future clinical practice: Sustainable assessment in action’ (Rola Ajjawi and David Boud), and ‘Translating educational research into educational practice’ (Rola Ajjawi) – CRADLE authors only listed. The edited volume will be a mainstay for clinical educators and so I’m very glad to have contributed to it.
From left: Joanna Tai, Margaret Bearman and Damian Castanelli attend the European launch of Learning and Teaching in Clinical Contexts.
