Lessons Learned: Research Informed Teaching, Postgraduate Research and

Teaching

Thomas Rades

School of PharmacyUniversity of Otago

Dunedin, New Zealand

This presentation has been jointly prepared by TR and Dr Pauline Norris

Research Informed Teaching

Research Informed Teaching (RIT) should be an important aim for every lecturer involved in teaching and research at universities.

In this presentation I will • make some general comments about the importance of RIT• give examples of use of research to inform undergraduate teaching• discuss the implications of RIT for curriculum development and for research priorities.

RIT improves quality of learning by

• making lectures more stimulating for both lecturers and students

• enabling students to critically evaluate research they read during their professional lives

• highlighting the changing and contestable nature of knowledge

RIT improves quality of learning by

• informing students about research being performed by staff in the School

• encouraging students to consider the possibility of continuing their learning - postgraduate student - embarking on a research career

• encouraging students to see pharmacy as a scientific discipline rather than just vocational training with a finite set of prescribed facts and manual skills

• enabling students to develop a 'research' orientation which they will hopefully adopt throughout their lives

Two levels at which research can inform teaching

• Research Illustrated Teaching: giving accounts of research to illustrate principles and concepts (making lectures etc more stimulating)

• Research Guided Teaching: using research to identify the skills and topics to be taught

Research Illustrated Teaching

• Post-graduate research methods course (PHCY 506)

• Aims: to teach students how to do research, how to critically evaluate research

• Using examples to illustrate – what to do– what not to do– how funding and other issues constrain

research

“In the dime stores and bus stations,People talk of situations,Read books, repeat quotations,Draw conclusions on the wall.”

Research Guided Teaching

• Use of ‘mystery shopper project’ (Pharmacists’ counselling about restricted medicines) to inform undergraduate communication skills

• Dr Pauline Norris, School of Pharmacy

• Health Research Council funded project

• 360 ‘mystery shopper’ visits to 180 pharmacies around New Zealand

• Produced data about extent of counselling, shoppers’ accounts of interpersonal interactions, pharmacists’ views about counselling about restricted medicines

“And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously”

• Used, alongside other practice research, to inform communication skills teaching for 2nd and 3rd year pharmacy students

• Project initially not popular with New Zealand pharmacists

• Seen as potentially damaging to pharmacists to ‘show their shortcomings’

• But we need research on ‘short-comings’, on barriers to good practice, and how to overcome them, to design our curriculum to improve pharmacy practice

• Much pharmacy practice research aims to ‘demonstrate that pharmacists make a valuable contribution to….’

• Part of occupational strategy: to defend pharmacists against impact of new technology, government policy changes, and to stake claim to new occupational territory (contributing to prescribing, reviewing medicines use etc)

• Research explicitly and consciously seen as strategy to advance the interests of the profession

• Implications– Affects topics, approaches chosen– Reduces chances of funding from outside the

profession (public bodies have stated agenda of improving public health, not pharmacists’ lives)

– Reduces acceptability of research to those from other disciplines

Not a good basis for research-informed teaching

• Research Guided Teaching requires research which is not just good news

• Example: Pharmacists can make valuable contribution to appropriate use of restricted medicines but students also need to know– The current situation (that many

pharmacists don’t counsel) – Why this happens– How they might improve this situation

Examples of Research Informed Teaching in Science

• PHCY 470: Pharmacy Elective

• CHEM 306: Instrumental Methods of Chemical Analysis

Formulation Strategies for Problem Drugs

Colloidal delivery systems

Solid dispersions

Polymorphism and

Poor Aqueous Solubility -

Challenges

in Pharmaceutical

Drug Development of

Solid dosage forms

Seminar Topics Semester 1

• The Phase Rule• The Solid State of Matter• Polymorphism• Amorphous Solids• Classification of Solids Systems• Methods to Investigate Solid Systems • Preparation of Solid Systems

Seminar Topics Semester 2

After discussion with the supervisor, in the second semester the students presented a seminar (30 min + 15 min discussion) on a specific topic of solid state delivery systems research.

Solid State Drug Delivery Group

A/Prof Keith Gordon (Chemistry)

Analytical: Ms Louise Ho (Terahertz spectroscopy)Ms Destari Pratiwi (Raman and NIR)Ms Fang Tian (Raman spectroscopy)Mr Axel Zeitler (Terahertz spectroscopy)Ms Kirsten Graeser (amorphous materials) Dr Clare Strachan (Raman, Terahertz, SHG)

Preparative: Mr Norman Chang (milling)Ms Andrea Heinz (amorphous materials)Ms Bianca Glaessel (polymer films)Dr Angus Forster (melt extrusion)Dr Gabriel Sertsou (co-precipitation)Dr James Patterson (co-milling, spray drying)

Colloidal Drug Delivery

New Concepts in medicine formulation

Seminar Topics Semester 1

• Introduction to colloids • Micelles and microemulsions• Liposomes and liquid crystals• Functionalised liposomes and nanoparticles• Methods to investigate colloids • Colloidal systems for the delivery of macromolecules

Seminar Topics Semester 2

After discussion with the supervisor, in the second semester each students will present a seminar (30 min + 15 min discussion) on a specific topic of colloidal drug delivery research.

Colloidal Drug Delivery GroupDr Sarah Hook (Immunology)

Microemulsions:Dr Raid Alany

Ms Anja Graf

Nanoparticles: Dr Suchat (Tom) Watnasirichaikul (PACA Nanoparticles)

Dr Tasana Pitaksuteepong (PACA Nanoparticles)

Dr Karen Krauel (PACA Nanoparticles)

Dr Anne Saupe (chitosan modified nanoparticles) Dr Arlene McDowell (nanoparticles/possum control)

Ms Andrea Heinz (nanoparticles/possum control)

Liposomes: Dr Melissa Copland (mannosylated liposomes)

Dr Karen White (mannosylated liposomes)

Ms Lee Fong Siow (liposomes in frozen systems)

Ms Krisitina Ferderber (transfersomes)

ISCOMs: Dr Patrick Demana (formulation and phase behaviour of ISCOMs)

Mr Dirk Lendenmans (cationic ISCOMS)

Ms Julia Myschik (ISCOM implants)

Cubosomes: Ms Shakila Rizwan

Claim:

RIT improves quality of learning by • making lectures more stimulating for both lecturers and students • informing students about research being performed by staff in the School

Focus Group:

“I really enjoyed our elective project - […] - even though they first appeared to be boring - your ‘lecturing’ style made them 100 x more interesting. […]”

“[The lecturers] created an environment which was comfortable and easy to learn in …”

“The elective project made me aware of current research both worldwide and at Otago University”

“Because something is happening hereBut you don't know what it isDo you, Mister Jones?”

Claim:

RIT improves quality of learning by • encouraging students to consider the possibility of continuing their learning - postgraduate student - embarking on a research career

Focus Group:

“... it also gave us an introduction and background on something that we can do our PhD in - some of us might see you guys again in the near future.”

“The elective project gave me an idea of the opportunities available in both postgraduate study and careers in the pharmaceutical industry.”

Claim:

RIT improves quality of learning by • enabling students to develop a 'research' orientation which they will hopefully adopt throughout their lives

Focus Group:

“The elective project delivered an in-depth view of certain principles of pharmaceutical science .... This elective appeared to try to stimulate the students into a higher arena of learning i.e. more of a postgraduate style of study.”

“Good points: The level at which the information was taught and taking the knowledge we previously had to a higher level of understanding. The actual topics we covered were really interesting. [...]”

Claim:

RIT improves quality of learning by• encouraging students to see pharmacy as a scientific discipline rather than just vocational training with a finite set of prescribed facts and manual skills

Focus Group:

“The elective project allowed me to further research in an area of interest and made me aware of the enormous amount of information available and how to access it.”

“I also liked the topic. It applied to many different areas of our education to date and so it seemed real (not just a bunch of more theoretical jargon that doesn’t matter to me).”

Instrumental Methods of Chemical Analysis Module: Raman Spectroscopy

Multidisciplinary RIT

Implications of RIT for curriculum development

• In curriculum development one should resist the temptation to rigidly describe, and to standardize the content of courses

• One should allow and indeed encourage intra- and inter-institutional variations in the content, based on research interests of staff (Research Guided Teaching)

• Modern pharmacy education should focus on principles and concepts. It cannot (and should not try to) keep up with every development. Rather it should encourage and enable the students to become lifelong learners

• Researchers are lifelong learners - Research Informed Teaching is teaching students to become lifelong learners

“A self-ordained professor's tongueToo serious to foolSpouted out that libertyIs just equality in school"Equality," I spoke the wordAs if a wedding vow.Ah, but I was so much older then,I'm younger than that now.”

Bob Dylan