Applying Evaluative Inquiry: Experience and Recommendations from the Field

Commentary on the COVID-19 pandemic must necessarily consider the medical issues in social and political context. This paper discusses one important dimension of the context, the long-term history of human activity as intrinsically technological in its nature. The pandemic has accelerated the use of technology to mediate relations between people “at a distance”. This involves not only a change in the skills people have (though acquiring these skills has become the central project of work for many people), but changes the sort of person they are. Our notions of “closeness” and “distance”, or of “touching” and “being touched”, and so on, refer simultaneously to states that are spatial and emotional, factual and evaluative. Inquiry into the differences in human relations where there is physical presence and where there is not raises very significant questions. What are the differences and why are they thought, and felt, to matter? What are the differences when the relationship is supposed to be a therapeutic one? What are the financial and political interests at work in enforcing relations at a distance by new media, i.e., “mediated” relations? How is a person’s agency affected by a lack of freedom to move or a lack of face-to-face contact? What happens to all those human relations for which physical presence was previously the norm, relations such as those performed in the rituals of birth, marriage and death, or in activities like sport and the arts? Can it be said that new technologies involve a “loss of soul”? The present paper seeks to provide a reflective and open-ended framework for asking such questions.

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An evaluative inquiry into continuing professional development: understanding faculty perceptions

Teacher Development ◽

10.1080/13664530.2020.1823463 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 24 (5) ◽

pp. 688-708

Author(s):

Sandra Ifeatu Efu

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Faculty Perceptions ◽

Continuing Professional Development ◽

Evaluative Inquiry

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Medical Students’ Child Health Experience in Primary Schools

SAGE Open ◽

10.1177/2158244017700461 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 215824401770046

Author(s):

Fiona Muir ◽

Kevin McConville ◽

Lois Robertson ◽

Karen Campbell ◽

Shona McKnight ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Primary School ◽

Interprofessional Education ◽

Primary Schools ◽

Academic Staff ◽

Free Text ◽

School Teachers ◽

Online Questionnaire ◽

Primary School Teachers ◽

Evaluative Inquiry

This study was designed to explore medical students’ and primary school teachers’ experiences of a new community teaching project. Academic staff and students from the School of Medicine Dundee, National Health Service partners, local education department, and primary school teachers engaged in a collaborative project which has embedded community engagement in the curriculum while encouraging interprofessional education through multiagency working. Influenced by evaluative inquiry, this qualitative study used an online questionnaire, designed to give participants the freedom to respond, and give their own opinions, via free text responses. The results show the value of a real primary school–based situation, and the merit of experiential learning gained throughout the program, in which students interacted with children about health promotion in a meaningful way. The interprofessional and collaborative nature of the project enhanced the value of the experience for all participants in relation to the benefits of teamwork, dispelling the doctor authority and recognition of the roles of others. The experience was an interactive, enjoyable, and expressive way to facilitate learning, and has helped prepare the health care students for future practice.

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