HPE 502 Philosophies of Science

Making the transition to health professions education (HPE) requires newcomers to expand their understanding of the construct of scholarship and how scholarship is achieved. Furthermore, newcomers must also expand their knowledge to include new philosophical stances, research paradigms, and methodological approaches. For example, research efforts that focus on examining clinical therapeutics necessarily rely on experimental designs where variables can be carefully controlled and sampling involves large numbers of participants. Conversely, researching human development and learning requires researchers to draw on philosophical stances and methods that are better suited to the complexity of social contexts.

 

In this introductory level course, students will begin to broaden their understanding of what scholarship is. We will discuss the scholarship of discovery, application, implementation, and service. Participants will examine how each of these areas of scholarship plays a critical role in advancing knowledge and practice. Participants will also begin to gain familiarity with new philosophical stances, such as constructivism, realism, pragmatism, and critical theory and examine how these stances inform and underpin diverse research approaches, including qualitative and mixed-methods research.

 

Course Goals: The goals for this introductory course are multifold. One goal is to help participants build foundational knowledge about the diverse activities that are considered scholarly. Another goal is to help participants gain familiarity with the field of HPE. Furthermore, in completing this course, participants will begin to develop an early foundation about the nature of knowledge and how different philosophical stances inform different research traditions.  

 

Credits

2

Learning Objectives

1. Reflect on and discuss what scholarship includes (e.g., teaching, discovery, integration, and application) [Weeks 1 & 2]
2. Reflect and analyze how researching in the social and health professions educational contexts is similar and different from researching in the clinical and biomedical sciences; [Week 3]
3. Discuss and reflect on how different philosophical traditions (e.g., positivism, critical theory, constructivism) shape what is learned from research efforts. [Weeks 4 & 5]
4. Discuss the goals and purpose of different research approaches, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods designs, as well as systematic reviews (e.g., meta-analysis, narrative, or scoping reviews), and program evaluations. [Weeks 4, 6 & 8]