Collaboration between undergraduates and academic staff to create textbook resources David Metcalfe 1, Daniel K. Border 1, Bilal Salman 2, David Davies 1 1.Institute of Clinical Education, University of Warwick 2.University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire, Coventry

Increasing recognition of need to treat students as active producers of knowledge – Institutions should work with undergraduates as “partners”, not “customers”.

What we did… Graduate entry medical school Interest in different forms of collaboration – Student textbook on a clinical topic 11 medical students 5 clinical and academic staff – Contributions written, peer-reviewed, heavily edited – Final book used to inform medical and biomedical science curricula

Why? Initially: – Pressure to publish? – Experiment with new models of publishing

What has been the impact? Active production of knowledge – Critical thinkers Flatten hierarchies – Academic and professional hierarchies Familiarisation with academic activities – Expanding the research culture to include undergraduates Building relationships between disciplines Raising expectations

Creating active producers of knowledge Undergraduates are typically passive recipients of knowledge (Rancière, 2001; Chang, 2005) Only a small, select group of students experience research at medical school (Metcalfe, 2007) ? Problem – Uncritical acceptance of scientific “fact” – Contrary to professional requirement to independently appraise evidence

“everything else I have ever written at university has been marked then filed… it’s never led to anything before” “I really learned that what you read in books isn’t infallible… it really is just what one person has written…”

Flattening hierarchies “Seeing distinguished professors like Lord Darzi get involved with our book has made them seem so much more approachable…” “This is the first time at university that I’ve been treated as a peer of people who would usually be my teachers” “[the book] demonstrates that genuinely useful outcomes can arise from students and teachers talking to, and working with, one another”

Familiarisation with academic publishing Graduate entry medical students Peer review – Experience amongst student cohort Editors’ experience – ISBN, deposit libraries “The whole experience has given me confidence in my own writing ability… I’d definitely like to write for publication again in the future…”

Building multi-disciplinary relationships Clinical staff, statistician, biologist, social scientist, undergraduates “medicine thrives on collaboration... Doctors collaborate with medical colleagues, allied health professionals, and with patients in every consultation… A Systems Approach to Cancer represents collaboration between academics, clinicians, and student doctors”

Raising expectations Raising student expectations Raising staff expectations “[A Systems Approach to Cancer] will encourage students to take control of their own learning. Studying medicine requires a high degree of independence and students should not be afraid to think laterally when they perceive a deficit in existing study resources”

Is this applicable to other disciplines? Graduate entry cohort – Older – Academically experienced – Career orientation of students All undergraduates can benefit from critically appraising a specific topic in their discipline. – Gain from creating a product Benefits of peer-peer education

References Chang H. (2005) Turning an undergraduate class into a professional research community. Teaching in Higher Education 10:3, Metcalfe D. (2007). Involving medical students in research. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 101:3, Metcalfe D, Border DK, Salman B, Davies D. (2010). A Systems Approach to Cancer. Birmingham: Reinvention Centre. Rancière J. (1991) The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation. California: Stanford University Press.