Using 'Guided-Discovery-Learning' to Optimize and Maximize Transfer of Surgical Simulation

Summary

The study is a randomized experimental study comparing two forms of learning; guided-discovery-learning and traditional instructional learning. Recruiting sixty-four participants, the investigators plan on comparing these two groups through a procedural skill in the form of suturing. In the case of guided-discovery-learning, the group will be allowed a discovery phase before instruction. In contrast, the control group will receive traditional instruction-lead-learning, in which a teacher teaches the participants a skill, and afterwards the participants practice it. After the teaching session, both groups will undertake a post-test of skill-level. A week later both groups will undertake a test for the execution of the learned suturing skill to a more complex version of the original task (Near-transfer). They will also undergo a test for the ability to transfer their learning to a new skill (i.e. preparation for future learning), in this case a new suture (Far-transfer). By filming these tests and having a blinded expert rater score them, the investigators will be able to get a measurement of attained transfer of skill-level throughout the procedures. The investigators hypothesis is that, the participants in the Guided-discovery-group will have an equal score to that of the traditional-learning group in the ability to obtain a skill and transfer it to a more complex version. Furthermore, the investigators hypothesize that the Guided-discovery-group will score better than the traditional-learning group in the case of transferring the procedural knowledge to learning a new skill.

As well as testing the efficacy of guided-discovery-learning on a procedural skill, the investigators wish to investigate how and why it works. By filming a subset of participants in each group, as well as using questionnaires, and focus-group interviews the investigators will explore how participants interact in this different learning-environment compared to the traditional instructional learning-environment.

Conditions

• Humans
• Simulation Training
• Problem-Based Learning
• Clinical Competence
• Education, Medical
• Learning
• Surgical Procedure, Unspecified

Interventions

OTHER

Discover followed by direct instruction [DD]

The intervention group will be taught suturing using the principles of guided-discovery-learning. In its simplest form, this means allowing the participants to practice placing a simple interrupted suture using the materials needed, as well as a picture of a finished suture. They must then draw from their own learning experiences, as well as discover for themselves how to do it. After a discovery period, an instructor will then teach them, how to place a simple interrupted suture, and will them guide them, as they begin to practice again.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Copenhagen Academy for Medical Education and Simulation

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Andreas H Aagesen · Copenhagen Academy for Medical Education and Simulation

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-10-02

Primary Completion

2018-11-05

Completion

2020-07-31

Countries

• Denmark

Study Locations