Learning in vivo

Peer teaching

Live broadcasting and an expert panel appear to be worth considering for numerous communities of practice for peer teaching and learning from peers.

Sitting on the patio (18 Nov 2009) of our timeshare unit, at Ballito, KwaZulu-Natal, Martie excitedly shared an item (one of many as we relax together) from page 15 of the Longevity of August 2008: “live [medical] procedures … broadcasted interactively to large audiences around the world, is gaining momentum” state BEAM ME UP, IN THE NEWS column.

The news item elaborated on this form of peer teaching, informing readers about Dr Farrel Hellig, a South African cardiologist that conducted surgery at Sunninghill Hospital, in Johannesburg, transmitted live to the European Cardiology Congress, held in Barcelona, Spain. A panel in voice contact afforded delegates in attendance, some 1000 top cardiologists from the world, the opportunity to raise questions while Dr Hellig performed four surgical procedures. Such technological initiatives bring together a cardiology community as a whole in sharing knowledge in a real-life (in vivo) setting.

Professional bodies may use such live broadcastings for continued professional development.

Conference organisers may schedule such events as part of the programme.

Organisations may schedule such training or developmental opportunities, if the necessary technological infrastructure is accessible.

I worked for a group of companies that quarterly held in-house conferences to share technical and safety improvements, initiatives or accomplishments. Instead of gathering (which has particular value) this kind of peer teaching could have been used most effectively.

xenos—signals mutuality

Larson (2009:49) points out that in ancient Greek literature the word (xenos) is used for both ‘guest’ and ‘host’, which signals the mutuality of hospitality. She uses the metaphor of the four movements of hospitality with regard to faculty development, which entails the creation of space in which academics, as guests, can explore. Academic developers provide supportive presence and space with safe boundaries in which academic colleagues can dare to be vulnerable and express anger and doubt without being judged.

 

Larson, MH. 2009. Welcoming and restoring, dwelling and sending: creating a space of hospitality in faculty education. Journal of Faculty Development, 23(1), 48-53.

Development of university staff

Seventeen years ago, Duke (1992: 96) observed that academic staff at universities regarded themselves "less as employees than as a kind of college or fraternity of individual scholars and professionals freely associating for the advancement of knowledge and the expression of academic autonomy". He proceeds to indicate that identity and first loyalty of faculty is with their discipline and the international community thereof. Given this collegiate context, staff development had been perceived as almost intrusive; close to offensive and even insulting. However, study leave or sabbatical is still held in high regard as an acceptable form of academic staff development.

However, circumstances changed. State funded higher education institutions can no longer do as they please—now there is accountability to government and the taxpayer. State funding is conditional to the performance of institutions in terms of, for example, throughput. Research funding is coupled to research output, in order to encourage more research. Academic staff is becoming more amenable to acquiring new abilities and enlarging their repertoire of skills.

Duke, C. 1992. The learning university—towards a new paradigm? Buckingham: SRHE & Open University Press

Re-current education

Today I stumbled upon the term recurrent education, while searching for literature about academic development as form of in vivo learning. Duke (1992: xiv) explains recurrent education to mean "alternation of education with employment, leisure and other activities throughout the lifespan instead of completing all formal education before entering fully into adult life". He proceeds to indicate that educational resources often favour the young (and the richer) over the older (and poorer) and states that recurrent education "is a policy proposition to support livelong learning and site a 1973 document of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The word recurrent intrigued me. According to Dictionary.com, it means "recurs; occurring or appearing again, especially repeatedly or periodically". There is something amiss—surely there is growth, one never return to where you were?

The word current, according to Dictionary.com, means "prevalent; customary; the most recent". Surely the aim of lifelong learning is to 'equip' people with the prevalent knowledge. I would therefore suggest the improvement of the term by adding a hyphen: re-current education/learning.

Duke, C. 1992. The learning university—towards a new paradigm? Buckingham: SRHE & Open University Press