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POE Community >
Faculty Research Fellows
BETSEY
BLACKMER AND LORNA HAYWARD
Betsey
Blackmer
Associate Professor
Co-op Department
Bouve College of Health Sciences
6 Robinson Hall
617-373-3448
Lorna
Hayward
Assistant Professor
Physical Therapy
Bouve College of Health Sciences
6 Robinson Hall
617-373-3180
PHYSICAL
THERAPY LEARNING COMMUNITIES
Betsey Blackmer
and Lorna Hayward are collaborating to complete a POE project that involves
faculty in the departments of physical therapy and cooperative education
who will work to create learning communities composed of Northeastern
(NU) physical therapist students, faculty, and alumni. The purpose of
the learning communities is to provide a systematic procedure for addressing
two emerging concerns in NU physical therapist
student education:
- Northeastern’s conversion to semesters brought
about a number of changes to the physical therapy curriculum including:
a reduction of time spent on coop (from 18 months to 12 months) and
off-campus for clinical education during the sixth year.
- The professional physical therapy accreditation team
noted that NU is the only physical therapy department in the nation
that uses a coop model. The evaluators recommended that we study the
impact of our educational model on student learning and professional
development.
A faculty team from the Physical Therapy Dept. and the
Coop Dept. will create learning communities composed of NU physical therapy
alumni, faculty, and students. Learning communities will be designed to:
- Evaluate how the semester conversion may affect student
learning on either co-op or clinical affiliation.
- Identify strategies for maintaining connections between the university
and students in experiential settings.
- Evaluate the impact of a standardized patient model for promoting
and assessing student integration of professional, liberal, and experiential
education.
We will assess
outcomes by analyzing grades for standardized patient assignments, feedback
from faculty, peers and patients, and reflective journal assignments.
In addition, we will conduct focus groups and interviews with a sample
of student, faculty and alumni to evaluate their experiences with the
standardized patient-learning community process. Results of the project
will unify our research interests in reflection, creative teaching strategies,
the integration of work and learning, technology, and mentoring. In addition,
results will demonstrate why our students might be different from others
and how and why POE works to develop essential skills in students.
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