Scholarship Supervisor Guide

The Scholarship unit helps the trainee focus on their academic and scholarly goals. Scholarship in medical education borrows from many scientific and philosophical disciplines, including Psychology, Sociology, Humanities, and even Business. Because of this heterogeneous mix, the elements of what qualifies as Scholarship may be challenging to identify; in all honesty, scholarship on medical education is in a constant state of evolution. The goal of this unit is to help the trainee understand their scholarly interests, the process of developing and sharing scholarship and why scholarship is necessary in medical education. The suggested reading list is a mix of classic and modern takes on scholarship for an academic clinician.

Must Know Concepts - Executive Summary

The following are concepts that every trainee who has completed this block should be able to address or explain.

Concept 1: Defining Scholarship in Medical Education

  •  Scholarship, Research, Innovation, Theyor and Science: what does it all mean?  
  • What activities qualify as scholarship? Discuss the trainee's and the supervisor's contributions. 
  • Why do Clinician Educators need to be scholarly? 

Concept 2: Scientific Method and Research Design

  • What is the scientific method look like in medicine? Medical education?
  • What are the challenges of the scientific method in education research?
  • List some common research methodology for medical education. Would these methods be acceptable in other domains?

Concept 3: Knowledge Dissemination or Translation? 

  • Discuss the difference between sharing results and translating results for the audience.  Discuss the challenge of interpreting results in multiple ways - there is always more than one way to understand even the most scientific study.  How might this impact outcomes?

Concept 4: Excellence in Scholarship

  • What are the elements of an excellent scholar? Consider some of your own ‘heroes’ or authors - why are they important to you?

Concept 5: Ethics in Scholarship

  • The REB is typically concerned with the ethical impact of research on the patient or research participant. Consider other kinds of ethical implications for scholarship and research.
  • What are the goals of scholarship? Can these goals be manipulated or have unintended consequences?

Concepts in Depth - For each of the above topics, please complete the following grid:

Concept 1: Defining Scholarship in Medical Education

Suggested prompts: 

  • Scholarship, Research, Innovation, Theory and Science: what does it all mean?
  • What activities qualify as scholarship? Discuss the trainee's and the supervisor's contributions.
  • Why do Clinician Educators need to be scholarly? 

Key readings about this topic that a faculty supervising a trainee should read or be familiar with: 

  • Fincher RE, Work JA. Perspectives on the scholarship of teaching. Med Educ.2006;40(4):293–5. 
  • Kanter SL. Toward better descriptions of innovations. Acad Med.2008;83(8):703–4. 
  • Beattie DS. Expanding the view of scholarship: introduction. Academic Medicine. 2000 Sep 1;75(9):871-6.

Concept 2: Scientific Method and Research Design

Suggested prompts:

  • What is the scientific method look like in medicine? Medical education?
  • What are the challenges of the scientific method in education research?
  • List some common research methodology for medical education. Would these methods be acceptable in other domains?

Key readings about this topic that a faculty supervising a trainee should read or be familiar with: 

  • Beckman TJ, Cook DA. Developing scholarly projects in education: a primer for medical teachers. Med Teach. 2007;29(2–3):210–8. 
  • Creswell JW. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks (CA): Sage;2009.
  • Harvey BJ, Lang ES, Frank JR, editors. The research guide: a primer for residents, other health care trainees, and practitioners. Ottawa: Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada; 2011

Concept 3: Knowledge Dissemination or Translation? 

Suggested prompts:

  • Discuss the difference between sharing results and translating results for the audience.  Discuss the challenge of interpreting results in multiple ways - there is always more than one way to understand even the most scientific study.  How might this impact outcomes? 

Key readings about this topic that a faculty supervising a trainee should read or be familiar with: 

  • Simpson D, Fincher RM, Hafler JP, Irby DM, Richards BF, Rosenfeld GC, Viggiano TR. Advancing educators and education by defining the components and evidence associated with educational scholarship.
  • Bordage G. Conceptual frameworks to illuminate and magnify. Medical education. 2009 Apr;43(4):312-9.

Concept 4: Excellence in Scholarship 

Suggested prompts: 

  • What are the elements of an excellent scholar? Consider some of your own ‘heroes’ or authors - why are they important to you?

Key readings about this topic that a faculty supervising a trainee should read or be familiar with: 

  • Cianciolo, A. T. and G. Regehr (9000). "Learning Theory and Educational Intervention: Producing Meaningful Evidence of Impact Through Layered Analysis." Publish Ahead of Print.
  • Woods RA, Artz JD, Carrière B, Field S, Huffman J, Dong SL, Bhanji F, Yiu S, Smith S, Mengual R, Hicks C. CAEP 2016 academic symposium on education scholarship: training our future clinician educators in emergency medicine. Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2017 May;19(S1):S1-8.
  • Varpio L, Gruppen L, Hu W, O’brien B, ten Cate O, Humphrey-Murto S, Irby DM, van der Vleuten C, Hamstra SJ, Durning SJ. Working definitions of the roles and an organizational structure in health professions education scholarship: initiating an international conversation. Academic Medicine. 2017 Feb 1;92(2):205-8.

Concept 5: Ethics in Scholarship

Suggested prompts:

  • The REB is typically concerned with the ethical impact of research on the patient or research participant. Consider other kinds of ethical implications for scholarship and research.
  • What are the goals of scholarship? Can these goals be manipulated or have unintended consequences? Is there a relationship between theory building, theory testing and ethics in scholarship?

Key readings about this topic that a faculty supervising a trainee should read or be familiar with: 

  • Cianciolo AT, Eva KW, Colliver JA. Theory development and application in medical education. Teaching and learning in medicine. 2013 Jan 1;25(sup1):S75-80