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JCPSLP
Volume 15, Number 2 2013
Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology
•
drawing on existing clinical skills to support the
supervision and education of students.
Learning to be a clinical educator through
reflecting on experience
Key to the learning of participants was reflection on their
experiences as both students and as CEs. As a starting
point CEs reported learning from having been students
themselves. Their own CEs and clinical placements were
the role models and learning opportunities on which these
participants based their own behaviour.
I guess initially your formative sort of influences are
the clinical educators that you had, or that I had, as a
student.
(Beatrice)
And I have really entrenched memories of some of my
clinical educators full of their very, very good style or
their very, very poor style.
(Marie)
The role models to whom the participants referred had both
a positive and negative impact but certainly shaped the
participants’ perceptions of how a CE role should be
performed. This finding is common in the clinical education
literature (Bluff & Holloway, 2008) and is illustrative of how
educators can shape the professional development of the
student through the model they provide (Chivers, 2010).
The participants referred to specific incidents in their own
experience and reflected on how these had shaped them
both as clinicians and later as CEs themselves. There were
often challenging or critical incidents that had had a lasting
impact on the participants:
Horrible memories of it now unfortunately. Five years
on, I can’t believe that these ladies are still impacting
me.
(Paula)
It is notable that the majority of stories centred on negative
experiences that both shook the participants’ confidence at
the time and had a lasting impact on their memories of
being a student. An underlying message was that, as
students, the participants were left perplexed or upset
when they felt things had not been explained to them
clearly and rationally; this they felt undermined their
confidence and their learning. As CEs themselves now, they
asserted that they would act differently in working with
students.
The participants in this study also linked their own
student learning experiences and preferences for learning
explicitly to their current approach to supporting students
themselves:
I felt as a student I learned best when I wasn’t being
watched so I always make sure that I give students
some time on their own with clients to kind of relax
and make their own mistakes rather than always be
watched.
(Aida)
Marie described how as a student she valued a reflector
type approach with her CE that allowed them to discuss
the clients in a way that enabled them to learn together.
Contemporary literature on adult learning in the professional
placement setting recognises the value of both the CE and
student engaging in a learning partnership in which the
student’s contribution is valued (Ryan, 2005).
The practical aspects of being a student on placement
also impact on the learning experience and were identified
as important factors. Participants remembered how tired
An inductive coding process, where codes emerge from the
data (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996), was used in analysis. Initial
coding for each participant’s data noted apparent themes
and subthemes. These themes were then compared to,
and collated with, themes from all interviews. The super-
ordinate themes were then created, re-worked and refined
and examples included from across the whole data corpus.
Thus, a process of analysis and interpretation that worked
both within and across all of the data sets was employed.
In this type of thematic analysis the identification of themes
and their categorisation is used to develop a conceptual
understanding of the experience being explored (Butler-
Kisber, 2010).
Due to the small-scale, interpretative nature of this research,
the findings are not claimed as generalisable and the subjectivity
of the interpretation is acknowledged (Pring, 2000). However,
it is hoped that the reader will find that themes and ideas
discussed here will resonate with their own experiences and
offer a space for critically reflective practice.
What was important to these
ten SLTs learning to be clinical
educators?
Thematic analysis of the participants’ stories yielded six
over-arching themes, each of which is characterised by a
number of subthemes (Table 2). These themes have been
further distilled for discussion here into three super-ordinate
themes:
•
learning through reflection on their own experiences as
both a student and as a CE
•
a community of practice that offers opportunities for
discussion with, and observation of, colleagues at work
Table 2. Learning to be a clinical educator:
Themes and subthemes identified in the data
Themes
Subthemes
Reflecting on one’s own
Critical incidents
experience as a student
Role models
Learning on placement
Impact on planning as a clinical
educator
Learning and growing through
Critically reflective practice
experiences as a clinical
Feedback from student
educator
“Honing skills”
Learning from challenging
experiences
The clinical context
Drawing on SLT skills
Transferable skills
Being a critically reflective
practitioner
Advanced beginner to professional
artist
Imposter syndrome?
Learning through
Observation of colleagues in the CE
peers/colleagues
role
Peer support
Formal learning
Clinical education training
Post-graduate study/self-directed
learning
Transferable skills
Further growth and role
Lifelong learning
models
Being a clinical educator as CPD
Being a role model as a clinical
educator
Professional artistry/burnout?