Individualized Learning Plans Research Articles

Development of a Curriculum for Foreign-trained Pharmacists Seeking Licensure in Canada

Demand for well-qualified health care professionals (including pharmacists) is projected to increase over the next ten to twenty years. In many jurisdictions, immigration will become an increasingly important human resource to replace aging, retiring workers and drive ongoing economic prosperity and growth. A lack of a systematic professional development and enculturation program for immigrant-professionals may result in unnecessary barriers. Bridging education provides a structured system for continuing professional development of professionals educated outside North America to acquire competencies and meet domestic standards of practice. The International Pharmacy Graduate Program in Ontario (Canada) has developed a model that has been recognized by the provincial government as “best- practice” for bridging education. This model consists of five elements: prior learning assessment and recognition, individualized learning plans, mentorship, distance learning opportunities, and peer-network formation. In particular, individualized learning plans link to a series of university-based courses (Canadian Pharmacy Skills I and II) benchmarked to B.Sc.Pharm educational outcomes. This paper describes development of these courses and results on candidates’ success rates in national licensing examinations.

Learning Plans as Support for the Development of Learner Identity: A Case Study in Rural Western Canada

The development of a complex, multi-faceted sense of self can increase student achievement and self-confidence. Individualised learning plans link the personal and social identities of students with the academic curriculum, mapping a pathway to activities appropriate to needs and goals and the development of an increasingly complex sense of self.

From Andragogy to Collaborative Critical Pedagogy

This article describes the evolving learning model of the Fielding Graduate Institute's innovative Ph.D. Program in Human and Organization Development. Based on the principles of andragogy, this program developed various forms of distance learning combining brief academic residencies with individualized learning plans carried out in the student's home setting and within the context of one-to-one faculty-student mentoring relationships. During the past several years, the program has been moving to a more collaborative and critical model of education. This article describes the original adult learning principles on which the program was founded and those it has added; its enduring differences, in ends and means, from traditional forms of graduate study; the limitations of andragogy and self-directed learning; and the primary components of an emerging model that builds on the principles of andragogy, but it adds elements of critical and collaborative pedagogy that can make possible social and personal empowerment and transformation.

Dynamic Assessment of EFL Text Comprehension

The goal of this article is to explore the feasibility of the development and implementation of the dynamic assessment procedure in such curriculum-based areas as English as a foreign language (EFL). Vygotsky's notion of the Zone of Proximal Development and Feuerstein's concept of Mediated Learning Experience served as a theoretical base for the construction of the assessment procedure. The procedure included a pre-test, mediated learning phase and a post-test. It was applied with a group of 23 academically at-risk students who failed to pass the high school English exam. The results of the study indicate that dynamic procedure indeed provides information on students' learning potential over and beyond that which is available from the static test. This information can be used for the development of individual learning plans attuned to the students' special learning needs.

Designing a Competency-Based Master of Arts in Management Program for Midcareer Adults

The process of designing a competency-based management graduate degree program for midcareer adults includes examining the background of competency-based programs at the designers’ university; the choice of competencies, levels, and categories (personal, people management, analytic, and career-specific skills and management knowledge); and the arrangement of the courses in the program. The design allows outcome evaluation to occur at the individual, course, and program levels through a pretest-posttest control group design. Students assess their competencies and design an individual learning plan in assessment courses at the beginning and end of the program. Students apply their learning through portfolio assignments in 10 management knowledge courses.

The Effective Public Works Manager

The author has developed a flowchart that shows the skills required for quality infrastructure management. Areviewof job announcements for infrastructure managers ratifies his findings—that people skills are the greatest such requirement. A course is now taught inWashington State and Oregon based on the author’s analysis; the course is taught by experienced professionals to students who want to be public works administrators and who are willing to undertake a self-assessment as part of the course. The author recommends that any curriculum for infrastructure managers should be 50% people-skill oriented. Administrative training, analytical skills, and governmental finance familiarity should be about one quarter of the course of study. The remainder should consist of training in law, planning, and other day-to-day governmental activities. The courses should be taught by experienced managers using something like the Washington course as an introduction and guide for individual learning plans.

Quality assessment in general practice trainers.

General practice trainers hold a key position in general practice training, especially through their provision of a role model. Their own competence in general practice care is important in this regard. The purpose of the study was to evaluate whether a quality assessment programme could identify the strengths and weaknesses of GP trainers in four main domains of general practice care. The quality assessment programme comprised validated tests on four domains of general practice: general medical knowledge, knowledge of medical-technical skills, consultation skills and practice management. The criterion for the identification of relative strengths and weaknesses of GP trainers was a variation in the scores of trainers indicating higher and lower scores (strengths and weaknesses) within each domain. GP trainers (n=105) were invited to participate in the study and 90% (n=94) did so. The variation in scores allowed the indication of strengths and weaknesses. Main strengths were: general medical knowledge of the digestive system; knowledge of medical skills relating to the skin; consultation skills concerning empathy; practice management with regard to accessibility. Main weaknesses were: general medical knowledge of the neurological system; knowledge of the medical/technical skills relating to the endocrine metabolic and nutritional system; consultation skills regarding shared decision making; practice management involving cooperation with staff and other care providers. This first systematic evaluation of GP trainers identified their strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses identified will be used in the improvement process as topics for collective improvement in the GP trainers' general curriculum and in individual learning plans.

Applications in continuing education for the health professions: Chapter five ofAndragogy in action

Although the threat of human obsolescence confronts all of humanity, given the accelerating pace of change in our society, it has a particularly strong impact on the professions--especially the health professions. The half-life of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values required by physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and pharmacists is shrinking with increasing speed. Citizens worry about being treated by health practitioners who have not kept up to date and have reacted by passing laws mandating relicensing and continuing professional education. The health care professions and institutions have responded to the threat by mounting massive programs of continuing professional education; in fact, this is probably the fastest-growing aspect of all of education. And, since the clientele of continuing professional education consists exclusively of adults, these programs have tended increasingly to be based on principles of adult learning. This chapter opens with a description of a pilot project for physicians at the University of Southern California, in which the central theme is self-directed learning. The selection presents the need for and assumptions and goals of the project and the major program components, including needs assessment, individualized learning plans, information brokering, and the use of peer resource groups. Then follow three selections focused on the continuing education of nurses. Selection 2, by the American Nurses' Association, sets forth a policy statement and guidelines for self-directed continuing education in nursing. Its provisions could easily be adapted to other professions. The application of the andragogical model to highly technical training in cardiovascular nursing at Doctors Hospital in Little Rock is presented in selection 3, and selection 4 describes an innovative inservice education program in which primary responsibility is placed on the clinical nursing units at St. Mary's Hospital in Waterbury, Connecticut.