Contribution to New Knowledge

This critical commentary and portfolio of evidence have deliberated on how Mode Neutral pedagogy has changed educational and healthcare practice. Numerous theorists and pioneers of healthcare disciplines have contributed significantly to the previous provision of education. Bloom, Maslow, Piaget, Vygotsky, and Knowles are a few of the theorists who have been integral to the discourse of teaching practice for discipline-based education. Arguably the theorist’s models are historical and perhaps redundant in post-industrial and in a digital era of academic scholarship. Nevertheless, the models continue to appear in the curriculum design of healthcare courses. I believe there is a weakness in relying upon past theoretical models to facilitate learning experiences in a society where there has been much social, political, economic and digital change since the authors’ publications. Identifying new ways of the all-inclusive educational experience for the development of learners in Higher Education and the workplace supports adoption of technology while the learner draws on life-wide experiences to make sense of newly acquired information.

Today, 2019, in the on-going exploration of ‘pedagogy’ and at the height of political and public concern regarding the future of the National Health Service. Universities seek new ways to assist their health partner in upskilling the workforce and do so by re-designing how subject matter is taught on-campus or in the workplace. Smith et al., (2008) discovered a new pedagogy for health education where the convergence of modes of delivery; classroom, online, distance and clinical setting using technology as the vehicle to extend learning beyond the on-the-ground delivery. The model was coined Mode Neutral Pedagogy in 2008. Academic discussion and debate about Mode Neutral raised the question whether this was a new movement in blended or hybridised education. Between this time and the present date, the originator of the model sought to understand the cause and effort of learner success in Mode Neutral courses. Several studies were conducted to pinpoint the granular detail that explained how the Mode Neutral dimensions, conditions and philosophical position worked in practice.

Capturing learner’s views from online questionnaires and focus groups in several case examples, brought about emergent themes highlighting new characteristics educators must consider in the facilitation of learning. With technology becoming an integral part of modern existence, there is a need to consider how pedagogy that is the holistic approach to facilitating learning is designed to allow for ‘transmodal’ learning. The learner self-selects the space or mode of learning from the workplace, social, educational or other lifewide modes that enable them to develop their cognition. The multiple modes form an educational ecosystem. Healthcare learners learn in numerous ways from simulation, discourse, philosophical meaning and more, to promote the interconnection between education and patient care (Baillie & Curzio,

2009; Grumbach & Bodenheimer, 2004).

The latter is vital to healthcare to eradicate errors or inadequate care resulting in harm to a patient. The creation of a pedagogical model entwined with the delivery of care supports the practice of evidence-based care. The Mode Neutral model has brought about changes in the way learners learn and shape their professional behaviour. Moreover, the model was recognised by the media in 2010 which led to myself receiving the prestigious National Teaching Fellowship award from the Higher Education Academy in 2012. This validation and recognition of the model emerged from my need to understand the intricate detail of how learners learn in a Mode Neutral experience. Undertaking further evaluative studies of the model and the student experience led to the recognition that there were deeper elements to the design of Mode Neutral.

In the last five years, I have discovered the sub-element to Mode Neutral that makes it a pedagogy compared to just another way of teaching. The original contribution to knowledge in this thesis is the discovery of the dominant principles that are existent within Mode Neutral teaching and learning within Higher and Professional Education. The five principles of Identity, Presence, Co-Presence, Emotional Intelligence and Immersion were found in each of the case examples and showed a compelling connection to each other. They play a key role in the learner’s participation and perception of their learning experience. The interconnections between the principles were named ‘Five Levers’ and have shown there is a six stages learner’s transition

through which Mode Neutral is the applied pedagogical model. The fundamental aspect of the Five Levers is the facilitator’s open promotion of Identity, Presence,

and Co-Presence to develop and sustain the learner’s ‘buy-in’ to the educational or

clinical experience. The application of Five Levers explains the core component of how ‘pedagogy’ can contribute to 21st Century teaching praxis. The author also believes if the Five Levers are absent in any learning experience learner disengagement will occur and prevent the acquisition of knowledge, skills and behaviour. The Five Levers framework encapsulates the principles and their association to show how learners sense of reality, sense of being or ‘buy-in’ can remain intact throughout the six stages to enable active learning across the modes in the educational ecosystem.