A Dentist's Professional Development for Teaching and Learning

A Dentist's Professional Development for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: The SEDA Programme

Kevin Hak-Kong Yip BDS, MEd, MMedSc, PhD, SEDA (UK)
Assistant Professor in Oral Diagnosis, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, China.

Key Words: Professional development, SEDA

Abstract
In the dental profession, a good clinician is also usually assumed to be a good teacher. This is a conventional view that is deep-rooted in dental education. All qualifying dentists can tell from their undergraduate experience that this is true to some extent. Lack of proper training in almost all disciplines of teachers in tertiary education was accepted as the norm until recent initiatives when specialized master degrees and higher diploma programmes were made available to academics in dental education. The SEDA (Staff and Educational Development Association) programme is the only programme in the UK, and one of the few in the world, to offer a programme of professional development for teachers in teaching and learning in higher education. This is done through an accreditation program that encompasses a wide range of teaching and learning activities. One of the authors gives a personal account, together with his mentor, of his pursuit of such a UK-based professional development accreditation programme.

Introduction
The pathway for an educator in dentistry has long been that a good clinician, or more rarely, a good researcher becomes a professional educator through an academic appointment. No training is normally given prior to the appointment nor is it common for "in service" training to be provided.

In the US, many dental educators take a postgraduate programme in education leading to the degree of MEd. Some prominent dental educators such as David Chamber have undertaken a PhD program and become strong advocates of competency-based education in dentistry. In a number of Universities in the UK, a postgraduate diploma in medical education is offered, e.g University of Dundee. In 1996, a formal masters degree in Higher Education was offered for the first time in the University of Sheffield. Few, if any of the teachers in dentistry have taken the opportunity to undertake such a programme. In the Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, a higher diploma was designed for teachers in higher education in 1997. While such programmes are extremely attractive for new professional academics, experienced teachers in dental faculties may feel that they are too engaged in their research and daily routines to undertake such a programme.

The case report given here provides an account of how the first author has gone through a programme of self-directed professional development with the help of the Centre for the Advancement of University Teaching in The University of Hong Kong in order to eventually receive accreditation by SEDA.

Professional Development
An important landmark in the current change in dental education was the report of the Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group of the American Medical Association (Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group, 1992). This report was followed by other calls for the development of evidence-based dentistry in dental education. Since then, there has been a slow but steady change in the way that dental students are taught. However, there is hardly any professional development for the teachers in higher education to cope with the changes that were recommended in the report.

What is SEDA?
The Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) of the UK, under its Teacher Association Scheme recognizes programmes offered by universities to promote improvement in the teaching and learning of academic teachers. These programmes allow full-time academic staff to acquire professional accreditation as teachers in higher education. The expected status of SEDA can be reflected from the following quote from SEDA webpage (http://www.seda.ac.uk/):

"SEDA is the professional association for staff and educational developers in the UK, promoting innovation and good practice in higher education, and was formed in 1993 by the merger of the Standing Conference on Educational Development (SCED) and the Staff Development Group of the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE). The Association for Education and Training Technology merged with SEDA in 1996. SEDA is seen by many as the shaper of thought and initiator of action in staff and educational development, not only in the UK but in the international domain also."

The Centre for the Advancement of University Teaching (CAUT) is based on a concept originally introduced from Australia to the University of Hong Kong. It is a centre that promotes an awareness of and competence in teaching and learning through various seminars, workshops and research projects both at the intra- and inter-institutional level. The organisation organizes the SEDA accreditation programme. Upon successful completion of the programmes, participants are awarded a SEDA Certificate of Accreditation.

The course structure is based on experimental and self-directed learning, the essence of problem-based learning. The coursework is designed to allow the participants to be creative and to reflect on their teaching and learning. Various workshops and practical exercise are organized to encourage collaborative learning.

SEDA Contract
A SEDA contract is an agreement between the SEDA co-ordinator in a local university or tertiary institution with the participating teacher to undergo the process of creating a portfolio. Upon completion, the portfolio will be examined by appointed examiners in the UK. A certificate in teaching and learning in higher education will be awarded when the requirements are fulfilled. This portfolio will be accredited by the governmental organisation in UK and tertiary educational institutions in UK.

Similar schemes are currently available in Australia and Canada. While the qualifications and accreditation are not yet recognized reciprocally, the nature of the accreditation programme may make it possible, eventually, for teachers in higher education in different continents to obtain qualifications that will be recognized in different parts of the world.

SEDA Course Proposal
This comprises a self-chosen curriculum project (Project); a teaching self-evaluation (Reflection on Teaching) and a portfolio documenting the achievement of course objectives (Achievement Portfolio).

The project should demonstrate the skill and attitude of the participant in developing a conceptual framework for their work as a teacher. While it may meet some of the course objectives, it is generally not sufficient to cover all elements of the programme as required by the course. Additional learning activities and educational research projects that should used to meet the eight SEDA course objectives are listed in the SEDA proposal. A personal example is given in Table 1.

In a SEDA course, eight course objectives are required to be addressed with different learning activities (Table 1). Reflection on these learning activities is the essence of the participant's teaching self-evaluation programme. The reflection should include:

1. Goals and how they relate to SEDA criteria
2. Strategies and resources required to achieve goals
3. Strategies used to monitor goal achievement
4. Evidence to be provided to indicate goal achievement
5. Expected support from the Course
6. Completion date

Other valuable learning activities should be included if they meet the same criteria.

A portfolio documenting the achievement of the project and the course objectives will be prepared at the end of the programme. The participant will prepare this portfolio with the help of the appointed mentor. The completed portfolio will then be submitted for examination by appointed panels in UK.

Road to SEDA: a personal account
I have been a university teacher since 1993 but my first experience in teaching was gained when I was a demonstrator during my doctoral studies (1990-1991). During the second half of my postgraduate study, I participated in workshops offered by the Staff Development Service of the University of Glasgow, Scotland. These seminars and workshops represented my first efforts at self-development with respect to issues and practices in tertiary teaching and learning. While I am a Chinese with English as my second language, much of my teaching experience has, nevertheless, been gained through teaching in an English medium; initially Scottish students and more recently students of many ethnic origins, the majority being Hong Kong Chinese. As an academic qualified in Dentistry, much of my training in "teaching" was gained on the job and has been accompanied by increasing experience in postgraduate clinical procedures which, in turn, have formed part of my teaching repertoire.

Teaching initially in the Discipline of Conservative Dentistry and currently in the Discipline of Family Dentistry involves topics such as operative dentistry, endodontics, prosthodontics, practice and patient management. In a clinical discipline, the time schedule for the teaching sessions differs from those of most of the university, each being 3-3.5 hours. There are 10 sessions per week and about 46 weeks in a clinical academic year. This is in accordance with the faculty allocation of time for teaching, research and clinical practice in the ratio of 5: 3: 2.

The Centre for Advancement of University Teaching (CAUT) organized its first induction course for new members of staff of the university. However, with lack of formal training and professional development in teaching in higher education, I decided to enroll at the University of Sheffield in the Master of Education (Educational Studies) in April 1995 where all my studies were focused on higher education. In the same period of time, I also actively participated in most of the CAUT workshops and seminars. I completed my MEd study quite quickly at the end of 1996 and was awarded the degree certificate in June, 1997. At the same time, I was awarded a CAUT Associate Program grant to initiate a program for the transition from didactic teaching to problem-based learning in my faculty. In 1998, a teaching and research endowment fund allow the initiation of the first joint collaborative educational research program among universities Hiroshima in Japan, Hong Kong and Chengdu in China (Kawamura et al., 2001). In 1998, further training was taken in the problem-based learning (PBL) facilitator training workshop in preparation for the newly implemented Problem-Based Learning curriculum in the undergraduate study.

Prior to registration on the SEDA course and signing the SEDA contract, a detailed seminar was given on the course at HKU's CAUT. I realized then that my professional development since 1993 had been insufficient. While many of the educational research projects and related teaching activities were being developed, there was a gap that need to be filled to meet the SEDA criteria and achieve the SEDA course objectives. Further to numerous discussions with my SEDA course supervisor, I decided to enroll in the SEDA course in 1998 with the following evidence of learning and teaching: regular participation of the CAUT seminar and workshops, MEd training and dissertation, a monograph for the study as a CAUT Associate Program, and other continuing educational courses and other teaching activities. While I tried to put all the documentation together, we then focused on those criteria that I had not been able to achieve in a well-designed professional development program such as SEDA. The portfolio was prepared for examination by both internal and external examiners in June 2001 with an appointed consultant for the SEDA program.

Achievement Portfolio
In my portfolio, the course project was "Evaluation of reflective student learning in a hybrid-problem-based learning program in operative dentistry". This is a research project supported by the CAUT Associate Program. The evaluation of learning style was carried out using the Lancaster Approaches to Studying Questionnaire and the score was calculated using the scale provided. A self reflection and a presentation evaluation from other group members were used for each student presentation. The teaching evaluated the productivity of the group using the Group Productivity Evaluation Questionnaire (Table 2). An example of how the score is worked out is shown in Table 3. In addition to reflective student learning, the research project also looks at the teacher's self assessment. Finally a monograph of the report of the research project was published for submission to the CAUT.

The course objectives in my portfolio were met with by describing different learning activities with the research publications resulting from these learning activities being also used as documentary evidence for the portfolio (Table 1). All relevant educational research projects and activities were included and brought up-to-date. Teaching self-evaluation was carried out through reflection on the learning activities. Other meaningful learning activities were also included to meet the SEDA objectives and the evidence is presented with its goals and how they relate to SEDA criteria; strategies and resources required to achieve goals; strategies used to monitor goal achievement; goal achievement; support from the course and the completion date.

Developing My Own Statement of Teaching Philosophy
An essential component of the SEDA programme is to develop the participant's own teaching philosophy. The following is a statement of teaching philosophy I developed in the SEDA course:

I believe

The Faculty of Dentistry adopted the World Health Organisation recommendation that dental education should be student-centred and socially and culturally relevant in 1998. If a true global perspective to dental education is to be achieved there must be a sharing of resources. With advances in educational communications and technology, I believe that Information Technology (IT) has an increasing role to play both in dental education and dental educational administration. My current curriculum development has partly been based on information shared through the international dental community by the World Wide Web (WWW). Formulation and implementation of educational IT policies in Hong Kong are of pressing importance as the pace is rapidly moving rapidly in the rest of the world. I am also interested in the use of computer-aided learning (CAL) in undergraduate teaching. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is increasingly being used in dental education in Hong Kong, and is ideally suited to the sharing of resources via the international network and WWW. Information can be down-loaded from the network to create an image and text-based electronic curriculum favourable to problem solving and problem-based learning, where it may be used within the social and cultural context of the user rather than that of the supplier. My new curricular revision employs such an approach to change didactic methods of teaching and learning into PBL. Such a teaching method favours skill and knowledge-transfer for students from the pre-clinical to the clinical context, by increasing communication skills and knowledge-retention.

The problem-based learning curriculum should be information technology medicated. An example of such a development is the contemporary new simulation dental laboratory in my faculty. This is equipped with an individual computer monitor that is linked to the teacher's bench where demonstration is video-taped and transmitted in real time to the individual student bay. Each bay is also equipped with intercom for communication. Upon demonstration, the students work on their own tooth model in a simulated setting. Demonstration can be readily retrieved from the computer or dedicated teaching website. Some dental simulation uses virtual reality technology to allow a 3-D re-construction of the whole operative procedure to be viewed on the monitor in real time. The software can calculate the pressure, force used, the depth and width of preparation and even the distance of the cavity from the pulpal chamber. These data can be compared with an ideal preparation stored in the software and the grade will be given accordingly. This technology was used with students who required remedial sessions and it was found that they improved immediately they made use of this new technology in teaching and learning. Subsequently, the technology was used for teaching with non-remedial students and the length of teaching and learning for various operative techniques was significantly reduced. While the technology used in Hong Kong is not as advanced as in other places and has only been introduced for 2-years, the initial feedback is encouraging. As a teacher using modern technology, it is now possible to put our ideas across with fewer difficulties. It also allows me to teach some identified weaker students to learn essential operative techniques in the usual manner.

Conclusion
While the range of SEDA program is vast and extensive with endless reading lists that could only be achieved with at least 3 years experience of an academic appointment, this is currently the only means by which a teacher in higher education can achieve and be accredited in the UK and Hong Kong. The incentive is drawn from the continuous professional development that is reflected in improvement in teaching and learning by the participant and the participant's students. In addition, it keeps your fingers on the pulse of the world of dental education that many clinicians and researchers will want to achieve.

Failing to conduct an educational research project or program without publication implies the study has not been conducted well (as one would in clinical and laboratory-based research). It should be the same as when one applies the gold standard of evidence-based medicine: if you design you educational research well, it should also be publishable. Teaching is currently very difficult to assess when it comes to applying for a promotion. Publishing educational research projects when you teach seems to offer one way out of the current system.

Acknowledgement
I would like to express my thanks to Professor Moore, Director of CAUT for his support in my pursuit of the SEDA accreditation program, and the advice for the preparation of this manuscript from Peter Falvey, Hon. Associate Professor and Consultant to the Centre for the Advancement of University Teaching (CAUT), The University of Hong Kong, China. The grant from CAUT Associate Program and the Leung Kao Kui teaching and research endowment fund is gratefully acknowledged.

Reference
Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group. Evidence-Based medicine: a new approach to teaching and practice of medicine. J Am Med Assoc 1992: 268: 12-17.

Table 1 SEDA course objectives and the project I would undertake.
1. Designed a teaching program or scheme of work from a course outline, document or syllabus.
2. used a wide and appropriate range of teaching and learning methods effectively and efficiently in order to work with large groups, small groups and one-to-one.
3. Provided support to students on academic and pastoral issues in a way which is acceptable to a wide range of students.
4. used a wide and appropriate range of assessment techniques to support student learning and to record achievement.
5. Evaluated their own work with a wide range of self, peer and student monitoring and evaluation techniques.
6. Performed effectively their teaching support and academic administrative tasks.
7. Developed personal and professional strategies appropriate to the constraints and opportunities of their institutional setting.
8. Reflected on their own personal and professional practice and development, assessed their future development needs, and made a plan for their continuing professional development.

10 March 2003

Correspondence:
Dr. Kevin H-K. Yip, Family Dentistry, The Prince Philip Dental Hospital, 34 Hospital Road, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Tel:(852) 2859 0286
Fax: (852) 2547 0164
Email: hkyip@hkusua.hku.hk