The teaching activity
The course objectives and expected learning outcomes
The Research proposal development course is organised by the Makerere College of
Health Science, Department of Psychiatry. The course is intended for Master of
Medicine (Psychiatry) postgraduate students, attending the first of a three
year Master of Psychiatry. The course runs for 15 weeks in Semester 1 of the
academic year.
Course Objectives
The specific
objectives of the course are:
- To appreciate and understand
what research is, and reasons for conducting research.
- To identify priority mental health problems which they can
investigate for their dissertation research project (for a Master’s
degree).
3. To provide
"hands on" experience with the research process and specific research
skills needed to formulate research questions, hypothesis and objectives; and
be able to apply an appropriate research design to achieve their research
objectives.
4. To demonstrate how
to conduct a literature review based on research objectives.
5.
To demonstrate the building of conceptual frameworks.
6.
To provide familiarity with the dominant research designs and research
strategies used by scientists.
7. To appreciate and
understand the basic ethical principles that governs human subject research.
8. To provide a solid
foundation for critically reviewing the reliability and validity of research
findings.
Expected Learning
Outcomes
Upon successful
completion of this course, the students will have gained professional skills
such as:
1.
Ability to formulate and
investigate informed mental health research questions, and their
interdisciplinary connections.
2.
Ability to identify a range of different research strategies and methods,
and to comment on their relative advantages and disadvantages
3. Ability to write a research proposal,
including principles of research design and ethical considerations
4. Ability to recognize the relevance of
mental health research to social, public and civic policy.
Contrast with
related activities carried out by the undersigned at the Karolinska Institutet
Although there is no exact equivalent of the above described course at my
home institute (the Karolinska Institutet, department of public health
sciences), I have taught in several courses that share similar objectives as
the above mentioned. I would here like to draw contrast between my teaching
experiences at the host institution (Makerere) and at the home institution
(Karolinska), particularly with regard to the theory-practice relationship, the
teacher-student-patient relationship, teaching approach and support materials.
Theory/practice relationship: The post graduate students I taught at Makerere are also practicing
psychiatrist, and the department lies a stone throw away from the psychiatric clinic at the Mulago national
referral hospital, Uganda’s largest government owned health facility. Thus, Master
students of psychiatry spend half the day treating psychiatric patients, and
the other half attending courses. This alternating between education/research
and practice in my view serves as a strong and constant reminder to students, that the
ultimate goal of education and research is for the betterment of health service
delivery for the patients the see daily.
This is particularly important for a course with primary focus on the
fundamental pillars of research including conception (theory), design
(methodology), fieldwork (practical part e.g. interaction with patients), analysis
and reporting. In stark contrast, at the Karolinska Institutet most Master
programs are a fulltime education commitment for the student, limiting the
opportunity for alternating between theory/research and practice. Opportunity
for field work is also limited, as many programs are between 1-2 years of
duration. The link between theory and practice thus is less pronounced, when
contrasted with Makerere. It is important however to recognize that the Master of Public Health students I teach at the Karolinska vary in their occupational characteristics and majority do not have a clinical background.
Teacher-Student-Patient relationship: Owing to the
above, the student-patient relationship at Makerere, department of psychiatry
is reinforced by the alternation between education/research and clinical
work. Another distinction between Makerere and Karolinska
in Master education lies in the classroom size. The master’s program in
psychiatry consisted of only 5 students, in stark contrast with masters
programs in public health at Karolinska where the number of students have
varied between 30-50 students over the years. A part from logistic advantages
(e.g. easier to go through assignments etc.), the advantage of having smaller
classes over large ones include among others improved teacher/student
interaction time at the individual level, building a closer academic relationship
with each student, and thereby enhancing better understanding of individual-level
weaknesses and strengths of students. On the other hand, the smaller the classroom
the smaller the variation in student characteristics that foster learning.
Variations in age, gender, culture etc. are known to enrichen discussions, widen
perspectives etc. which are important for a course at post graduate level.
Teaching approach:
Finally, an important distinction between the two institutions lies in the grade
of student involvement in knowledge transfer. While both Karolinska and
Makerere require students active participation in knowledge transfer, my
experience is that postgraduate students at Makerere, department of psychiatry
are markedly more involved. A model characterized by what I will term as “peer
learning and feedback” supported by a tutor is used. In this model each student
is assigned a topic to review, based on tutor-provided materials. They then make a
power-point presentation of main message therein followed by an in-depth
discussion of the topic with the rest of the class, guided by the tutor. An
additional major requirement is that all students complete a thorough synthesis
of the materials provided, to enrichen the discussion. Each session is then
rounded up with real-world examples of mental health problems with knowledge
gaps in the Uganda context that could generate research hypotheses for
further investigation.
Support material: A pre-condition
for the above teaching approach is that students have access to updated
materials. The university libraries are not as well equipped at Makerere as
they are at the Karolinska. Students at Makerere risk therefore missing out on
the state of the art in the fields studied. Tutors need to pay attention to
this aspect, as they distribute materials on which lectures are based, by
including recent discussions and debates in the field.
My contribution to
the course
My
contribution in the course covered a total of 2 working days per week, over a 3
week period. Spreading out the course over a 15 week period is congruent with
the teaching approach laid out above, so as to allow students time to prepare
presentations, deep reading and reflection. In general, I was assigned as tutor
for the methodology part of the course, which addressed research study designs,
study populations, sampling, sampling strategy, sample size estimation, study
variables and their measurement, reliability and validity issues, data
collection methods and analysis. I
wrapped this up with a group assignment (two groups of 3 and 2 students
respectively) that concerns developing and writing up a methodology section
based on a specific research question. The assignment was to be completed in
writing and posted to me after one week. According to the results, it appears
the students had developed deep understanding of the issues addressed during my
tutorship.