Amanda Sinclair
Program Director, MSc in Sports Medicine
University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences
Department of Health Sciences, Sports Medicine Program
Discipline: Athletic Training
1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
719-255-4315
asinclai@uccs.edu
a. What is the central question, issue, or problem you plan to explore in your proposed work?
Does a progressive introduction of critical reading processes enhance the graduate athletic training student’s ability to critically review publications?
b. Why is your central question, issue, or problem important, to you and to others who might benefit from or build on your findings?
Failure to read assigned readings because they are “too long, too difficult to understand and boring” is a problem seen not only in the athletic training program, but also across disciplines. This failure to read could either be a symptom of, or a cause for, the inability to critically review literature. Athletic training, and medicine in general continue to push for evidence-based outcomes; therefore being able to critically read is a major factor is determining what the evidence says. Currently, there is minimal literature in athletic training discussing this need in academics. As some of the research is relatively dated and related to the medical school student, it raises the question as to whether or not some of the techniques still hold true with today’s athletic training students.
c. How do you plan to conduct your investigation? What sources of evidence do you plan to examine? What methods might you employ to gather and make sense of this evidence?
This project would be conducted using a mixed methods design. In the spring core athletic training course, I would conduct pre- and post-test measures of students’ ability to write a critical abstract of an assigned article. Additional qualitative measures would also be gathered along with the rubric scoring of the abstract. The treatment would be conducted via a progressive critical abstract writing process that would also include group use of PICO or READER processes, discussion, self-evaluation and teacher evaluation. The assignment would culminate with a final summary of the students experience with the assignment. Although this would be the end of the study for the PTLC, I would continue the assignment for second semester with the assignment, if outcomes seem favorable, with the same cohort of students.
d. How might you make your work available to others in ways that facilitate scholarly critique and review, and that contribute to thought and practice beyond the local?
Publication of the results of the study would be aimed at the Athletic Training Education Journal (online peer reviewed publication of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association). Presentation of methods, if beneficial, would be targeted for the Research and Education Foundation’s Athletic Training Educators’ Conference or at the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Annual Symposium.
e. Include a literature review of the theory and effective teaching practice of the subject of your inquiry in order to locate your research in the literature preceding it.
Anisfeld[1] introduced a course in psychology aimed at developing critical reading competence. The assignments included presentation of articles and abstract writing. Testing was utilized to determine the improvement of students’ abilities after completing the course. The instructor selected articles around a common interest improving coherence of discussion. Results demonstrated that students in the course had improved abilities in critical reading when compared to those who did not take the course.
Saltmarsh and Saltmarsh[2] identified difficulty in teacher education students’ engagement with literature. Through their study on academic literacy, they discovered that the dilemma exists as assessment was to measurement driven rather than focused on development of academic literacy. In response they introduced a critical review process as an assessment tool for determining the students’ ability to read, comprehend and explain academic literature. Students were to also include questions raised and needs for further explanation that would be discussed at a group with their class and instructor. The authors concluded that both writing and discussion of the critical review on a regular basis is an important component of the process allowing more transparency of the norms surrounding research and publication.
Gaetjens[3] presented a 5-stage model for teaching gerontology graduate students to critical read literature. The model was presented in the beginning of the curriculum and continued throughout. The process included handouts on guidelines for reading literature; literature review, theoretical essay, and research selected by the instructor; questions for determining the “good read;” qualitative versus quantitative paradigms; and a level of analysis matrix. Students reported positive habits of critical reading after completion of the program.
Linzer, DeLong, and Hupart[4] and Inui[5] both reported on teaching critical reading to medical students. Both revealed benefits to medical students for participating in the journal club/seminars for critical reading. However, Linzer, DeLong and Hupart[4] noted that a resident-led seminar was more fruitful in attendance and reading quantity. While in both cases, medical students were able to read more literature and with better skills, there was no evidence that the critical reading impacted their practice.
MacAuley,[6] MacAuley,[7] and MacAuley and McCrum[8] investigated the critical appraisal (reading) of literature by medical students through the READER acronym. The acronym stands for relevance, education, applicability, discrimination, evaluation, and reaction. The acronym was developed to fill the need for general medical practitioners to be able to close the gap on understanding epidemiological principles to interpret scientific literature. Additionally, the general practitioner could use READER to help identify literature that is fundamentally necessary in impacting his/her practice and discard irrelevant literature to their practice. MacAuley[7] demonstrated that the READER method was easily applied, results were similar between groups and readers were able to identify relevancy.
Elkins9 wrote about using PICO to help answer clinical questions. PICO stands for patient population, proposed intervention, comparison group or current standard, and outcome desired. Nurses in the medical-surgical unit used the process of to determine if a process should be changed. Staff nurses concluded that it was beneficial to them to use the process and that it should be used to find the best evidence. Elkins concluded that PICO could help to incorporate evidence-based medicine into daily practice.
References:
[1] Anisfeld M. A course to develop competence in critical reading of empirical research in psychology. Teach Psychol. 1987;14(4):224-227.
[2] Saltmarsh D, Saltmarsh S. Has anyone read the reading? Using assessment to promote academic literacies and learning cultures. Teach Higher Educ. 2008; 13:621-632.
[3] Gaetjens CA. Teaching critical reading to graduate gerontology students. Gerontol Geriatr Educ. 2997;17(4)17-31.
[4] Linzer M, DeLong ER, Hupart KH. A comparison of two formats for teaching critical reading skills in a medical journal club. J Med Educ. 1987;62:690-692.
[5] Inui TS. Critical reading seminars for medical residents: Report of teaching technique. Med Care. 1981;XIX(1)122-124.
[6] MacAuley D. READER: An acronym to aid critical reading by general practitioners. B J Gen Pract. 1994;44:83-85.
[7] MacAuley D. Critical reading using the READER acronym at an international workshop. Fam Pract. 1996;13:104-105.
[8] MacAuley D, McCrum E. Critical appraisal using the READER method: A workshop-based controlled trial. Fam Pract. 1999;16:90-93
[9] Elkins MY. Using PICO and the brief report to answer clinical questions. Nursing. 2010;10(4):59-60.
f. What is your record of innovation in teaching and/or the assessment of learning?
Throughout my career as a faculty member, I have continually incorporated innovative teaching methods into my courses. I have also been involved with program assessment while being the one responsible for all assessment in an accredited athletic training education program. My role at UCCS has also been to develop the assessment methods for the Sports Medicine program.
g. Are you able to attend the required meetings as specified in Section 5, What are the Benefits?
Yes. The meetings are an opportunity to gather valuable input from others interested in learning outcomes.
h. Can you suggest an appropriate coach/mentor for your project? Please also provide the email address for your proposed coach/mentor.
Dr. Andrea Hutchins
Assoc. Prof of Nutrition, UCCS Dept. of Health Sciences
ahutchin@uccs.edu
i. If your project is selected, are you willing to serve as a coach in PTLC in a future year?
Yes.
