A Dialogic Teaching Approach to Supporting Veterinary Students Self-Regulated Learning on Clinical Extra-Mural Studies: An Educational Design Research Study

This thesis explores how veterinary students self-regulated learning (SRL) can be supported through a dialogic teaching approach to enhance their learning on Clinical Extra-Mural Studies (CEMS). Previous research has emphasised that learning in the clinical workplace setting can be a complex activity and multiple factors can influence how students regulate their learning. The literature further highlights that mentoring has the potential to support students SRL and their transition to learning in the clinical setting. The purpose of this study was to investigate how a new tutoring initiative can be developed and implemented to support students on CEMS. Specifically, this research sought to explore how conversations between students and their tutors could be designed to promote students' SRL for CEMS. The central aim of research was to investigate the characteristics of these conversations. Limited research exists on the nature of mentoring conversations and how dialogue can be structured to support learning. Therefore, this thesis aimed to explore this under-researched area for the context of CEMS. An Educational Design Research (EDR) approach was used to design, construct and evaluate a new CEMS tutoring initiative and a Conversational Framework through an interventionist, collaborative process in the real-world context of a veterinary medicine programme. This research grounded in a pragmatic paradigm, involved three key phases that captured data through mixed-method studies to inform iterative design enhancements to the Conversational Framework. These phases included: (i) analysis and exploration, (ii) design and construction, and (iii) evaluation and reflection. Several research activities were conducted during these three phases. Findings of the analysis phase include: identifying the challenges that students encounter when planning their CEMS, types of learning activities they engage in while on placement, stakeholder perceptions of CEMS, the contextual drivers that influence how students are supported for their CEMS, and key design criteria and theoretical considerations informed by the literature. These findings guided the researcher to ensure the design and construction of the CEMS tutoring initiative and Conversational Framework was informed by SRL theory, best available evidence from the literature, and addressed the needs of stakeholders. Following a period of collaboration by a project team the new CEMS tutoring initiative was designed and implemented with 141 students and 46 CEMS tutors in the veterinary medicine degree programme (combined 5 year school-leaver and 4 year graduate entry pathways, at University College Dublin, during the academic year of 2021). The third phase of research focused on evaluating how the CEMS tutors utilised the Conversational Framework to inform their dialogical interactions with students. Findings revealed the Conversational Framework supported the tutors to discuss SRL processes with students, focusing primarily on SRL planning, goal setting, and motivational sub-processes. The results helped enhance a further iteration of the Conversational Framework. This research demonstrated how a dialogic teaching strategy can be implemented in a veterinary medicine programme to support students SRL processes for CEMS. Findings and educational theory informed the development of 16 design principles that can be used by other veterinary educators in their own educational context to guide their dialogical interactions with students to support their learning on CEMS.