Thursday, January 5, 2012


Ágoston Kecskés
992868991
January 3, 2012


Blog Entry #1: The more things change, the more they stay the same

When I started today’s readings[1] [2] [3] [4] I expected to be diving headfirst into a body of literature completely foreign to me. Halfway through the second article, I found myself revisiting many of the familiar themes of my undergraduate and graduate studies. The old familiar qualitative versus quantitative methods debate made a triumphant comeback. It appears that this debate is as vibrant in the medical education as it is in the public policy and administration literature. Likewise, Thomas Kuhn and Descartes made their mark on our discussion of metaphors used to guide the medical education research agenda. It was also nice to see that the ‘heavy hitters’ of the medical education literature like Geoff Norman had just as strong personalities as those in other budding, controversial fields of academia. Despite these similarities, or rather because of them, I think I can learn a lot during this CEEP selective. Given my familiarity with the themes found in the background reading, I feel poised to tackle some of the higher-level themes in the medical education literature. Likewise, having written a few literature reviews (both formal and informal) I feel poised to move beyond basics to focus on style and structure. That being said, this CEEP selective only lasts three weeks so I will have to work quickly. My research question will have to be narrow and focused to allow for adequate exploration of the relevant issues. To work efficiently, I will attempt to focus my learning by integrating my teaching exercise with my research question and literature review.


[1] Geoff Norman, “Sample sizes, scoops and educational science,” Advances in Health Science Education, http://www.springer.com/education+%26+language/journal/10459; accessed 2 January 2012.
[2] Glenn Regehr, “It’s NOT rocket science: Rethinking our metaphors for research in health professions education,” Medical Education, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03418.x/full; accessed 2 January 2012.
[3] Geoff Norman, “Chaos, complexity and complicatedness: Lessons from rocket science,” Medical Education, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2011.03945.x/abstract; accessed 2 January 2012.
[4] Glenn Regehr, “Highway spotters and traffic controllers: Further reflections on complexity,” Medical Education, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2011.04007.x/abstract; accessed 2 January 2012.

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