Cálculo de la temperatura de los objetos y el suelo

4.12.1 Defining Educational Professionalism

Professionalism is defined differently, depending on the disciplines and contexts. For example, in medical education, professionalism is “a set of values, behaviours, and relationships that underpin the trust the public has in doctors, with doctors being committed to integrity, compassion, altruism, continuous improvement, excellence and teamwork” (Tallis 2006, p. 8). In dentistry, professionalism is “a display of high intellectual, technical and moral qualities and abilities, in service to patients and community” (Masella 2007, p. 207). There is no agreed definition for the term professionalism itself (Hargreaves and Goodson 1996); it can be interpreted in different ways and have different meaning to different people (Evans 2008).

In the educational context, which is a focus of this research study, the definition of educational professionalism has not yet unanimously agreed. Educational professionalism is seen as a combination of attitude, behaviour, and communication skills of educators (Kramer 2003). From a different perspective, Carr (2013) asserts that professionalism in teaching stems from the relationship between ethics and teaching practice. A similar emphasis on ethical dimensions of teaching professionalism has also been discussed in the literature (Caetano and Silva 2009; Mondal and Roy 2013). However, it is argued that expert knowledge is a profound core of professionalism and its relation to ethics; it contains both subject knowledge and knowledge in education (Seery 2008). In other words, educational professionalism from this perspective is both what to teach and how to teach. In a wider sense, educational professionalism can cover the roles of educators in an institution and the responsibility for personal and professional development (Hesketh et al. 2001; COPDEND 2013a).

The above discussion reveals that educational professionalism relates to characteristics of effective educators and teaching. It includes attributes of educators, knowledge and expertise, ethics and professional conduct, and continuous professional development. In this study, educational

professionalism mainly focuses on what makes an effective educator instead of attempting to identify the exact definition of professionalism.

4.12.2 What Makes an Effective Educator?

From the student perspective, important characteristics of effective educators include dedication to quality of care, honesty, integrity, positive attitude

toward students, respect to students, and positive interaction with other colleagues (Elzubeir and Rizk 2001). Educators need to express enthusiasm for teaching and learning and develop good relationships with students

(Hesketh et al. 2001). Positive attitudes towards educational roles and ethical behaviours are essential to encourage students to develop learning and professional competences (Bullock et al. 2010). Educators need to be caring and supportive in order to develop good feeling and morale within students (Paukert and Richards 2000). Awareness of equality, diversity, and sensitive issues is crucial for educators. Educators need to ensure that students are equally treated and student diversity is respected (Harris et al. 2007; AoME 2011). From these examples, it can be concluded that (1) positive attitudes and ethical behaviours towards students, colleagues, and teaching roles and (2) awareness of diversity and equal opportunity are key characteristics of effective educators.

These characteristics can be demonstrated through educators being good ‘role models’ (Paukert and Richards 2000; Elzubeir and Rizk 2001).

Sometimes tacit knowledge and the hidden curriculum might enable students to develop professional attributes and competences unconsciously. For instance, students develop learning by observing their educators dealing with patients and imitating behaviours their educators perform. Regarding this

notion, being a good role model is essential especially when educators get involved in clinical teaching.

In addition, other competences are required for being effective educators. For example, educators have to possess good clinical and technical skills in order to be good role models for students to imitate, learn and develop professional competences in a real healthcare context (Elzubeir and Rizk 2001). Communication skills are also considered important for providing effective teaching and collaborating with colleagues and supporting student learning (Paukert and Richards 2000). Educators should commit to personal and professional development which is important for improving their

competences and maintaining high quality teaching (Hesketh et al. 2001; Bullock et al. 2010).

A study by Hatem et al. (2011) reveals that the characteristics of an effective educator comprises attributes, skills, and knowledge which is relevant to the literature review in this topic – Educational Professionalism. This section illustrates attributes and skills of effective educators. In the next section, knowledge required for being an effective educator is discussed.

4.12.3 Content Experts vs Process Experts

It is suggested that educators should possess knowledge in subject matter (including clinical knowledge) in order to be able to transfer information to students and correct student’s misunderstanding (Irby 1994). Content knowledge is also essential for large group teaching or other educational methods which require educators to provide knowledge that cannot be found easily in other resources to students (Brown and Manogue 2001). The

benefits of content expertise are: it supports students to develop in-depth discussion and critical thinking skills (Neville 1999; Azer 2005). it helps students develop a deep understanding by providing an insight on a specific

issue (Yee et al. 2006). However, content expertise can interfere with student learning specially in a small group as educators might giving too much

information or dominate the learning process instead of facilitating student- led learning (Davis and Harden 1999).

Process expertise (i.e. effective facilitating) supports student learning better than content expertise (De Grave et al. 1999) as it assists educators to be able to facilitate, encourage, and motivate student individual and

collaborative (Khan and Coomarasamy 2006). However, it could be argued that sometimes if educators have lack of insight in subject knowledge, they might not be able to correct misunderstandings arising during the session.

4.12.4 Implications for Dental Educators

According to the literature, although the definition of professionalism has not yet been agreed, it is possible to perceive educational professionalism as a wide range of attributes, skills, and knowledge of effective educators as well as ethics and professional issues essential for teaching practice. Educational professionalism could be clarified using the holistic education concept – ‘head, hands, and heart’ (Easton 1997) and the outcome-based model for clinical educators (Hesketh et al. 2001) as a metaphor. Effective dental educators need to have both subject and educational knowledge – ‘Head: Doing the thing right’. They need to possess skills essential for teaching and support student learning – ‘Hands: Doing the right thing’. Finally, dental educators need to have attributes of the teaching professional – ‘Heart: The right person do it’. In summary, Educational professionalism should not be seen as an isolated collection of professional attributes; rather it needs to be considered as fundamental for all educators (Singh et al. 2013).