Appendix B - Education Philosophy
Educational Outcomes
In addition to job oriented skills, today's workers are expected to possess a capacity for problem solving, constructive skepticism, and the ability to manage ambiguity (Barth, 1990). Recent studies on narrowly focused and task oriented curricula have concluded that "narrow emphasis on vocational skills is insufficient to achieve workforce success, and that vocational programs should emphasize the development of academic skills..."(Benz, 1997)
Post-secondary education is now emphasizing the role of basic education in the context of technical or vocational education and how it is used to develop the thinking process, foster understanding, and develop mastery in any occupation. Mastery of basic academic skills improves problem-solving capabilities and prepares the student for lifelong learning.
Upon completion of any course of professional education, it is expected that a graduate possesses the skills, knowledge and attitudes to enter the workforce. The safety of the public greatly depends on the competence of all health care providers. Unfortunately, competence is an extremely complicated and multi-faceted issue. Although it is relatively easy to identify, quantify, and test cognitive and psychomotor competence, there is more to achieving competence than being technically adept.
In Responsive Professional Education, Stark, Lowther, and Hagerty (1986), proposed that professional preparation is a combination of developing both professional competence and professional attitudes. Professional competence includes the following six subcategories:
Conceptual competence - Understanding the theoretical foundations of the profession.
Technical competence - Ability to perform tasks required of the profession.
Interpersonal competence - Ability to use written and oral communications effectively.
Contextual competence - Understanding the societal context (environment) in which the profession is practiced.
Integrative competence - Ability to meld theory and technical skills in actual practice.
Adaptive competence - Ability to anticipate and accommodate changes (e.g., technological changes) important to the profession.
Contextual, integrative and adaptive competence are not discrete topic areas and do not easily lend themselves to behavioral objectives. Programs and faculty members must constantly weave these issues into the conceptual and technical components of the course.
It is impossible for a standardized curriculum to identify specific objective and declarative material for contextual, integrative and adaptive competence, but their importance cannot be overstated. Individual instructors and programs must keep these competencies in mind as they are developing instructional strategies to build entry level competence. These competencies are often the result of leadership, mentoring, role modeling, a focus on high level cognition, motivation and the other instructional skills of the faculty.
The development of professional attitudes is influenced and shaped through role modeling, mentoring, and leading by example. It is difficult to "teach" in a didactic sense. Generally, professional attitudes, such as the following, are best nurtured through leadership and mentoring.
Professional identity - The degree to which a graduate internalizes the norms of a professional.
Ethical standards - The degree to which a graduate internalizes the ethics of a profession.
Scholarly concern for improvement - The degree to which a graduate recognizes the need to increase knowledge in the profession through research.
Motivation for continued learning - The degree to which a graduate desires to continue to update knowledge and skills.
Career marketability - The degree to which a graduate becomes marketable as a result of acquired training.
While it is the role of testing agencies to evaluate conceptual and technical competence, it is the role of the educational institution and the faculty to nurture, develop, encourage, mentor, and evaluate all components of professional competence.
Education and Training
The difference between education and training is not simply a matter of semantics. Generally speaking, education is a broad based, theoretical endeavor designed to improve cognitive skills and decision making. Training, on the other hand, tends to be specific and practically oriented. This distinction is not to imply a hierarchy or value judgement. Education without training results in inert knowledge which lacks transfer to real life situations. Training with inadequate education results in narrow, task oriented outcomes characterized by poor understanding, inadequate long term retention, and little ability to change or adapt to situations which are dissimilar from the training environment. The most successful instruction strikes a balance between theory and practice, and is a combination of both education and training.
Curriculum Consistency
Public expectations, political issues, legal considerations, and the need for interstate reciprocity of provider credentials all point to the need for some consistency in the content of education programs. There are two approaches to curriculum consistency: one suggests that curriculum consistency should be achieved by standardized and mandated curricula; the other utilizes firm educational standards and a monitoring program to assure that educational institutions, faculty, and regulatory agencies adhere to these standards.
EMS has attempted to assure educational quality through the use of national standardized curricula. There is no doubt that these curricula have served an important function in the development of EMS and have played a major role in the growth and development of the profession. They have established the foundation of practice for EMS and were successful in defining a new area of practice.
On the surface, the rationale for the continued use of standardized curricula seems logical. Standardized curricula assure that all classes are conducted in the same manner. Theoretically, this should produce similar outcomes. Unfortunately, standardized curricula do not account for variations in instructors, resources, and students. In EMS, there is still a wide variation in outcome measurements, despite the requirement that programs adhere to standardized curricula.
There is little evidence that standardized curricula improve classroom instruction or the quality of education (Airasian, 1988). In addition to having little evidence validating the effectiveness of standardized curricula, some researchers have suggested that there are detrimental effects (Brooks 1991). Some of these detrimental effect are:
1). Lack of responsibilities of curriculum development at the local level (instructors, facilities, etc.)
2) The impression that testing drives instruction.
3) An emphasis on covering rather then teaching material.
4) The impression that minimum competence is the desired outcome.
5) Difficulty in being able to respond to identified local needs.
6) Lack of ability to quickly respond to changes.
The second approach to curriculum consistency offers advantages for our evolving EMS education system. This model establishes standards and guidelines for process and product variables in EMS education. Typically these standards and guidelines address areas such as sponsorship, resources, curriculum, evaluation, and program planning. Programs are required to adhere to standards and guidelines with an external review process to assure compliance. This system offers a method of assuring appropriate curriculum content while placing responsibility for instruction at the local level, enabling flexibility, encouraging creativity, and facilitating rapid change.