University of Illinois at Chiicago
March 24, 2005
TO:Robert Mrtek, Chair
Senate Committee on Educational Policy
FROM:Roger Nelson
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
I am submitting for review and action by the Senate Committee on Educational Policy the attached proposal from the Department of Medical Education, College of Medicine, to revise the Master of Health Professions Education degree program.
The proposal was approved by the MHPE Advisory Committee on August 25, 2004, and by Vice Dean Michael Bailie on behalf of the College of Medicine in February 2005.
The proposal is being presented to the Graduate College Executive Committee for consideration at its meeting on April 8, 2005. I will report to SCEP on the outcome of that meeting just as soon as the results of the meeting are available.
RN:
Attachment
Cc:S. Wiberley
M. Issel
C. Hulse
R. Betts
J. Flaherty
M. Bailie
L Sandlow
College of Medicine, Department of Medical Education: Master of Health Professions Education
August 2004
Title
/ Revision of the Master of Health Professions EducationSponsor / Department of Medical Education (CME), College of Medicine
Description
/ Currently, a major requirement for the MHPE degree is the “capstone” requirement of a thesis or project. This requirement is designed to provide students the opportunity to integrate and apply what they have learned, and to complete a work of scholarship that will help prepare them for their leadership role in health professions education.According to the current MHPE program brochure, “the project is more development-oriented, while the thesis is more research-oriented.” The project currently earns 4-6 credit hours and students are required to take 4 additional credit hours in a content area linked to the project. The thesis currently earns 6-10 credit hours and students are required to take 3 credit hours in courses related to research design and statistics.
We propose that all students should be required to complete a “thesis” for the program capstone requirement. The thesis will be a work of scholarship of one of four types: the scholarship of discovery, of integration, of application, or of teaching. The thesis would earn 6-10 credit hours (as compared with the current requirement of 4-6 credit hours for the project and 6-10 credit hours for the thesis) and students would be required to take at least 4 additional credit hours in a content area linked to the thesis (as compared with the current requirement of 4 additional credit hours for a project and 3 additional credit hours for a thesis in courses related to research design and statistical analysis).
MHPE 597, Project Research (0-6 hours) will be dropped once all current students who have elected the project option have either graduated from the program or left the University.
Justification / There is general agreement among DME faculty members and students that a capstone requirement is desirable. However, there has been some confusion among both faculty and students about the distinction between the “thesis” and the “project.” There has also been some concern that the “thesis” and “project” may not be on a par with respect to status and standards despite repeated statements that ‘one is not better than the other, only different.’ These concerns have been buttressed by different credits and different supporting elective courses for the “thesis” and “project” options.
The proposed revision of the capstone requirement, that all students should be required to complete a thesis, defined as a work of scholarship, is consistent with conceptualizations of scholarship, first proposed by Boyer (1990), and extended by Glassick (1997, 2000), that are becoming widely accepted in all of higher education and in medical education as well (entire issue of Academic Medicine, September 2000, the premiere journal in medical education).
Boyer and Glassick argued for an expansion of the vaunted ideal of scholarship to include four types of scholarship applicable to all disciplines that reflect the actual “work of faculty”: the scholarship of discovery (original research), of integration (searching for connections among discoveries obtained by different approaches or disciplines), of application (application of knowledge to consequential problems), and of teaching (communicating knowledge effectively to students). They also identified the standards applicable to any type of scholarship based on surveys of granting agencies, scholarly press directors, and scholarly journal editors. These standards for excellence in any type of scholarship are: clear goals, adequate preparation, appropriate methods, significant results, effective presentation, and reflective critique.
The proposed revision of the capstone requirement reconceptualizes the requirement in a way that is consistent with current definitions of scholarship in all of higher education. This reconceptualization fits with the emerging mission, philosophy and purposes of the MHPE program. The revision should also address the confusion and concerns related to the current distinction between the “thesis” and the “project”.
Catalog Statement: Current
Minimum Semester Hours Required: 32.Course Work
Required Courses: MHPE 501, 502, 503, 504. Students who elect the project option must also take 4 semester hours in a content area related to their project.Comprehensive Examination
NoneThesis, Project, or Course-work-only Options
Thesis or project. No other options available.Thesis: Thesis students must earn at least 6 hours in MHPE 598; no more than 10 hours of MHPE 598 can be applied to the degree.
Project: Students who elect the project option must earn at least 4 hours in MHPE 597; nor more than 6 hours of MHPE 597 can be applied to the degree. /
Catalog Statement: Proposed
Same
Course Work
Required Courses: MHPE 501, 502, 503, 504. Students must also complete 6-10 credit hours of electives, 4 of which must be in a content area related to their thesis.Comprehensive Examination
NoneThesis, Project, or Course-work-only Options
Thesis. No other options available.Students must earn at least 6 hours in MHPE 598; no more than 10 hours of MHPE 598 can be applied to the degree.
DELETE
Minority Impact Statement / This revision is expected to have a positive impact on minority students, in that it significantly expands the range of scholarship that falls under the desirable label of “thesis,” thereby allowing for “thesis” work grounded in diverse philosophical assumptions and ways of knowing, as long as students adhere to accepted standards of excellence and rigor.
Budgetary and Staff Implications / The implications for faculty resources are expected to be positive. The Department of Medical Education (DME) incorporates faculty with a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds, including various areas of education, psychology, sociology, and the humanities. The revised capstone should make it possible to make better use of existing faculty resources in teaching and advising students..
Library Resource Implications / We don’t envision any library resource implications.
Space Implications / We don’t envision any space implications.
Unit Approval Date / MHPE Advisory Committee, August 25, 2004
College Approval Date / February 2005 (Vice Dean Michael D. Bailie for the College of Medicine)
Proposal Effective Date / Fall 2005
References
Boyer Ernest. Scholarship Reconsidered. New York: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1990.
Glassick Charles et. al. Scholarship Assessed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.
Glassick Charles. Boyer’s Expanded Definitions of Scholarship, the Standards for Assessing Scholarship, and the Elusiveness of the Scholarship of Teaching. Academic Medicine. 2000; 75(9), 877-880.