Faculty and Staff Expertise

Authored by Sally R. Beisser, Ph.D. & Jennifer Thoma, Ph.D. of the Drake School of Education

Accepted to the Anatolian Journal of Education

"In this qualitative case study, professional development of pedagogical strategies was presented to 44 university professors and 33 undergraduate students representing two Eastern European universities. This study was part of an international partnership between one U.S. Midwest private university and two partnership universities in Kosovo. Researchers conducted a two-day pedagogical workshop in each university setting. Participants in one university represented the Faculty of Medicine, Education, and Language professors. The other university group included English Language and Literature undergraduate majors. Using survey research methods of questionnaires and interviews, data were collected using a pre-workshop questionnaire to inform the workshop content, post-workshop survey, and participation discussion, follow up interviews, and researcher reflections. Researchers presented a series of workshops on best practices in student engagement, questioning strategies, formative reflective assessment, and representing to learn in each university setting. Results revealed participants from both universities were a) positive about learning new pedagogical strategies and b) implementing new teaching practices as a result of the workshop interventions. These findings suggest building positive professional partnerships for professional development results in valuable changes to professional practice. Future research should focus on long-term benefits of such partnerships, specifically on how workshops may continue to inform professional practice."

Authored by John Rovers, Michelle Becker, Michael Andreski & Jeffrey Gray

Published in the Medical Science Educator, May 2020

"Students in a wide variety of health professions are increasingly interested in volunteering on a short-term experience in global health (STEGH). The literature suggests that STEGHs pose a variety of potential risks and benefits, and may carry a significant cost to plan and provide. One potential mitigating factor for any risks and costs is that student participation on a STEGH may enhance their cultural competence. Since monies spent on STEGHs are fungible, and there may be other opportunities to improve students’ cultural competence, the objectives of this study were to determine if participation on a STEGH increased students’ cultural competence and if so, what the cost for any such increase was. In this study, 20 students who participated on a 1-week STEGH to the Dominican Republic completed the Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence Among Health Care Professionals – Student Version (IAPCC-SV) before and after the STEGH. The costs for all students and 7 supervising health professionals to volunteer for the STEGH were calculated, and the size of any increase in cultural competence was determined. The cost was divided by the change in cultural competence to ascertain the cost of the change. Students showed a measureable increase on the IAPCC-SV overall and on the subscales of knowledge and skill. The cost of a 1% overall increase in students’ cultural competence ranged from $287 to $401. These results may allow schools offering STEGHs to determine if their offerings are cost-effective or not."

Read the full article

Drake undergraduate students Abigail Rye and Ellen Boehm - along with Maddie Shipley, a 2020 graduate - presented a poster entitled, ‘Determinants of optional vaccinations in relation to public knowledge at Pravara Rural Hospital, Loni; Pediatrics department’. 

Drake graduate students Haley Miller and Shawna Stricker presented a poster entitled,’ Exploring Complementary Approaches to Pain Management’.

Both posters won first prizes and were based on research these students conducted while in India as part of the J-term course 'International Health Topics' offered through Drake's global exchange partner, Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences.