Faraz Khurshid the gist of the question is excellent: to improve health professionals students teaching and learning of pharmacology and eventually transform their ways of thinking and practising (practicing).

What I have difficulty with is the premise of a theoretical educational system being of much use. We are living in a world that is fast evolving yet ideas do not traverse domains like biology, toxicology, medicine, ecology with any rapidity. For example to see a concept like human microbiota change medicine is heartbreakingly slow. It has been over twenty years ago in biology that the majority of DNA in our bodies is nonhuman, yet so much medical research continues as if nothing has changed. Faraz, if I were to propose a method to improve pharmacology teaching would be to look outside of pharmacology at things that touch this domain at best tangentially. For example, what are the effects of vitamins and mineral enrichment from a chemical or material perspective or asking questions like Since almost all diseases of civilization involve leaky gut syndrome, what does this imply?

A great deal of my work is created from looking at the frontiers of domains where they overlap.

just to shamelessly promote my work, here are two that stem from a broader understanding of biology

Preprint A Tale of Two Beers

&

Preprint Microbial Outsourcing of Toxins Theory Or why there are no v...

To sum it up whether it is the effect of diet on health or how the dental state affects disease, a broader perspective and nonuniform syllabus are lacking in current systems of education. I do realize this is not an easy suggestion to implement nor parameterize.

I only hope this helps some

CG Yukna

Thanks, Christopher Gerard Yukna for your valuable inputs with interesting insights. In fact, I like the idea of using the tangential lens of looking into the variables/factor outside the discipline of pharmacology teaching that may play an instrumental role in improving the teaching/learning experiences of a difficult subject like pharmacology. At this moment, it would not be possible for me to implement or parameterize it, however, we can look into it in the later phase of our research.

Going back to my question, let me tell you the background briefly, I am working on a systematic review where we have a plan to use a 'Realist informed approach' for the data synthesis. The realist method is all about hypothesizing and testing CMO (Context, Mechanism & Outcome) configurations. We came up with few program theories, -- sets of underlying assumptions about how an intervention ( pedagogical interventions in our case) is meant to work and what impacts it is expected to have (student understanding and improved ways of thinking and practising in the discipline of pharmacology). An important aspect of a realist review is 'Theory adjudication'– which educational theories fit best our program theories?

The query is along those lines to explore what educational theories can best inform our research question. Hope this would help you to understand the background. Thanks for sharing those preprints, I just scanned them and found them interesting. Will review them shortly.

Faraz Khurshid thanks big guy!

As I see it, the medical profession has to face many moral real life dilemmas, namely when it passes from theory to practice. So, health professionals students should have a high level of moral development. Lawrence Kohlberg's moral theory might be an educational theory to inform the pedagogical interventions undertaken to influence medical student's teaching and learning experiences. I would urge you to read the following book: Rest, J., & Narvaez, D. (Eds.) (1994). Moral development in the professions. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Dear Orlando M Lourenço , thanks for sharing your thought. In my opinion, Lawrence Kohlberg's moral theory is more focused on the development of morality and moral reasoning among learners. In general, this theory may attribute to moral thinking that impacts cognitive development in learners. However, our line of inquiry is to establish educational theories that may help us to understand the underlying mechanisms through which different pedagogical utilities work to improve students ways of thinking and practicing in the discipline of pharmacology. Thanks for sharing the book name.

You are always welcome Prof. Christopher Gerard Yukna .

Hi, as a pedagogue and researcher on teaching-learning, I recommend a theory that considers the biological and the social, that's why I recommend Vigotski's critical historical theory, as he considers that the teaching-learning process is not isolated from social issues.

Thanks, Ana Claudia do Prado Lima , in fact ''Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development'' has a crucial and instrumental role in impacting the students teaching and learning experiences associated with the pedagogical intervention. I considered it as an overarching theory for our scope of research. Moreover, I think 'Cognitive load theory also makes its place taking into account the role of pedagogical interventions in reducing the cognitive load associated with pharmacology learning. I am in search of few more theories along these lines.

Look at how learning is organised at the University of Maastricht.

Also, join my NCHE programme for personalised help

Harry

Dera Faraz Khurshid,

Thanks for your reaction on my post. I understand your concerns.

Stay safe and healthy,

Orlando.

The theory is the person's own source, it depends on the intellectual property of the person, how much to develop it and at the same time how much time he will have to prepare himself for learning on his self-power The theory depends on the thinking of the person himself. If I talk about the field of medicine, the more elementary level a person practices, the more he will have knowledge Therefore, with your own discretion, understanding and self-reliance, try to learn something from the person in which you have earned fame and keep your thinking positive there, the method of study should always be practically based on scientific theory only then you. You will be able to get something in your own experience through second experience, so the learning experience depends on the researcher or the learner, in the end I will say the same thing until you do not have the desire to learn, you will not do anything new in your life. Will you be able to.

a combination of humanistic theory and constructivist theory may be effective. the medical profession must understand the human side as well as be able to overhaul the social order for the better. not only focus on science and economic orientation.

May be you can make use of Lev Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory.

Dear Faraz Khurshid,

This intervention can be effective: to give students time to drqw their learning and to talk about the reasoning.

Please read the article:

Memorisation methods in science education: tactics to improve the teaching and learning practice.

I am curious to know your findings.

Kind regards, F. F. B. Pals

Hello, if you are looking for a theory that describes the transformation of thinking and practice, the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen) may be interesting. Attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control lead to intention that forms our behavior. The theory is used in a variety of research fields such as health care, psychology and education.

You contact my email [email protected]

First of all, I am extremely grateful to all of you for your valuable contributions and insight into our line of inquiry.

Dear Orlando M Lourenço, getting to know about Lawrence Kohlberg's moral theory was an interesting experience. Thanks for introducing this theory to me. Moreover, Vygotsky's sociocultural theory serves as an overarching theory to our research quest. Thanks once again.

Respected Harry Gray

Kindly send me the link to the NCHE programme for personalised help.

Dear Om Singh, I am entirely in agreement with your perspectives about educational theories & frameworks. However, our quest was in line with a pre-requisite of realist philosophy, where we need to devise a number of program theories -which include a set of underlying assumptions about how an intervention ( pedagogical interventions in our case) is meant to work and what impacts it is expected to have (student understanding and improved ways of thinking and practising in the discipline of pharmacology). An important aspect of a realist review is 'Theory adjudication'– which educational theories fit best our program theories? That's was the reason I put the question on the RG platform to get valuable thoughts and interesting responses from scholars representing educational communities. Thanks for sharing your email address. Will keep in touch.

Thanks my dear Ahmad Muthohar , I think Humanistic theory can also be brought into the picture as an overarching theory to support our research inquiry.

Dear Frits F. B. Pals , thanks for sharing your interesting article about 'memorization methods in Science education. This article helped me to come across Baddeley's model of working memory. I found this theory a little complementary to the cognitive load theory. The interesting thing is our program theories are very much synced with the cognitive load theory, and now I came across another impressive model. I am eager to use it, let's see how things will shape up. Keep following the updates on RG platform.

Wow dear Silvia Fränkel , glad to know about the theory of Planned Behavior/Reasoned Action by Ajzen and Fishbein, I will definitely go through it and see if it can help us effectively to inform our research queries.

A BIG THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR VALUABLE SCHOLASTIC CONTIRBUTION.

"Which educational theory can best inform the pedagogical interventions undertaken to influence medical student's teaching and learning experiences?" Faraz Khurshid ask.

I would also suggest Jerome Bruner's theory of instruction. See, for this purpose, his seminal book, The process of instruction is worth reading

Thanks

Cognitivist theory and constructivism.....agree with Faraz Khurshid Orlando M Lourenço Orlando M Lourenço Silvia Fränkel Frits F. B. Pals

Urie Bronfenbrenner's (1979) theory of human ecology may be an appropriate theory to inform the pedagogical interventions undertaken to influence medical student's teaching and learning experiences.

Good thoughts

Extremely delighted to see an overwhelming response to my query. I was in search of few theories and now I have a bunch of them with me. Thanks, Adita Maharaj for adding to this conversation.

My dearest Orlando M Lourenço, I am extremely grateful to you for your wealth of information and ingenious contribution to our quest for educational theories. I found Jerome Bruner's theory of instruction quite relevant to our area of interest. Even, Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory presented an interesting dogma. We have to give a second thought, whether to rope in these thought-provoking theories to our devised program theories. let's see.

Thanks once again to all of you.

Dear Faraz Khurshid,

Thanks you your kinds words. It has been a pleasure to participate in your thread.

I remember now the theory of ethical and intellectual development in the college year by Wlliam Perry. This theory may be an appropriate theory to inform the pedagogical interventions undertaken to influence medical student's teaching and learning experiences.

"Which educational theory can best inform the pedagogical interventions undertaken to influence medical student's teaching and learning experiences? Dear Faraz Khurshid asks.

What follows speaks about four different worldviews that scientists, artists. politicians and educators can adhere to. I hope that what follows is of some help for you. To my knowledge, is yet to be known to what extent each worldview is related to the pedagogical interventions undertaken to influence medical student's teaching and learning experiences. It is my perception that, all things being equal, the educational theory can best inform the pedagogical interventions undertaken to influence medical student's teaching and learning experiences is highly dependent upon the worldview espoused, namely by the educator at hand. In his classic book, titled World Hypotheses: A study of evidence. Los Angeles: University of California Press., Stephan Peeper (1942) spoke about four paradigms or worldviews, namely in Science (i.e., Formism, Mechanism, Contextualism, and Organicism). The root metaphor of mechanism is the machine. The root metaphor of formism is similarity. The root metaphor of contextualism is the ongoing act in context. And the root metaphor of organicism is the process of organic development, as in living, growing, organic systems. Mechanism and formism are analytic: The whole is reducible to its parts. The parts are basic, the whole derived. Organicism and contextualism are synthetic: The whole is basic, the parts derived. Formism and contextualism are dispersive: Facts are related when they are found to be so, not by assumption. Chance, therefore, is not denied in these hypotheses. Mechanism and organicism are integrative: Facts are related by assumption and order is categorical. As such, chance is denied. Dispersive worldviews or hypotheses tend to be higher in scope than in precision; integrative world hypotheses tend to be higher in precision than in scope. What follows points to psychological theories that illustrate each of these four worldviews. For example. Skinner's (1969) theory of learning is an example of a mechanistic approach. Piaget's (1983) theory of development is an organismic approach. Life-span developmental psychology (see Baltes, 1987) and Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological approach to human development are only two examples of contextualist views of the world. Fodor's  (1983) theory of the modularity of mind is just an example of a formistic paradigm or worldview. If we are interested in these worldviews , we can benefit from reading a chapter (chapter 1) by Willis Overton, published in 1998, in the Handbook of child psychology. New York: John Wiley.

When conducting research, my favorite worldview is organicism.  Formistic worldview's main idea is that there is no development whatever because one's feeling, thinking and acting are, as it were, prewired in the brain and  mind.

Of course, biological maturation, neural maturation in particular, underlies one's mental functioning, be it emotional, cognitive, moral and the like. Maturation, however, simply opens up a series of possibilities, but without giving rise to their actualization. Context plays a role in this actualization. Context, however, is not passively received on the part of the individual as if s/he was a mere machine that receives inputs from outside and generates, almost automatically, outputs.

As Piaget pointed out physical and social experience is only significant when it is acted upon, that is, actively assimilated by the individual. Organicism takes into account the role of maturation and the physical and social milieu in one's development and education, but, in contrast to the other worldviews, it stresses the role of one's actions upon the objects and one's interactions with the others in one's process of development and education. It is because of this that most of my empirical research and theoretical thinking is, so to say, Piagetian- and Kohlbergian- oriented.

When doing research, we also assume, implicitly or explicitly, a certain worldview or even a metatheory. As I see it, a certain metatheory is implicated , for example, in our goal to conduct research. I assume that all researchers look for the unknown, that is, for a better understanding of the true, the good, and  the beautiful. Note that the  true, the good, and the beautiful are universal  categories, regardless of  how they are understood at different places and times.

Dearest Orlando M Lourenço, a 'Big Thanks; for introducing me to these 4 paradigms/worldviews. Now the approach is visibly clear to me and I believe we are also following the worldview of organicism coupled with contextualism. As you rightly mentioned that context plays an integral role in the actualization of maturation (biological & neural). Moreover, the realist philosophy also makes place for the mechanism that is integrative in nature.

Realist inquiry is based on a realist philosophy and considers the interaction between context, mechanism and outcome. This is the dimension of our research inquiry. The educational theories that mainly inform our program theories are focused on the paradigms of Mechanism and Organicism. However, we believe that this realist inquiry will pave the way to Contextualism as well, as the context of our research quest is extremely enriching and multifaceted.

Thanks once again.

Dear Faraz Khurshid,

Thanks for your kind words. Good to see that we emit in the same wave length in several aspects.

It has been a pleasure to participate in your thread.

Check https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5769162/

Use of problem based learning. Here students are exposed to certain behavior or new ideas and they are to read, understand and comment with the help of the lecturer.

Dear Faraz Khurshid,

I wonder whether Carol Gilligan's (982) theory on an ethic of care and responsibility could not be used in educational theory to influence medical student's teaching and learning experiences.

Thanks again Prof. Orlando M Lourenço ; the outcomes of our research is more focused on the Cognitive and Psychomotor aspects of the pedagogical interventions rather than the affective domain. However, the discussion of the underlying mechanism of realist philosophy can be supported by Carol Gilligan's ethics of care, as mechanisms (by which educational interventions work)mainly encompass the hidden 'Emotional or Cognitive' responses. Again it's relevant. Obrigado estudioso.

Dear Faraz Khurshid,

Thanks again for kind and cogent words. If, as you say, "the outcomes of our research is more focused on the Cognitive and Psychomotor aspects of the pedagogical interventions rather than the affective domain", then you can profit a lot from J. Piaget's theory of cognitive development and from Henry Wallon's and his collaborators' work on psychomotor development. It makes me happy to hear from you " Obrigado estudioso". Do you know some Portuguese?

Thanks, Prof. Orlando M Lourenço , the theory of cognitive development and constructivism lies within the heart of our research quest.

By the way, I don't know Portuguese, it was just the 'google guided language' that I used. Glad to know that you like it. Capisco poco poco italiano, which I learned during my stay in Italy. Will love to learn Portuguese.

Dear Faraz Khurshid,

Thanks again for you kind words.. Good to know that the theory of cognitive development and constructivism lies within the heart of our research quest.II can see that you speak a little of Iitalian, which is not much different from, Portuguese. It will my pleasure to continue to give my contribution to your thread

This theory is right choice if you are looking for a theory of measuring examinees' abilities:

Preprint Item Response Theory and Its General Total Score