Abstract
Have you ever read statements that have stopped you in your tracks and changed the way that you looked at things? One comment had a major impact on my thinking with regard to professional education. It pulled me up, made me think hard and was the initiator for pursuing further knowledge and ideas. It was from the educator Eraut (1994, p49), who stated:
…certain systems of thought or paradigms dominate a profession's thinking in such a way that they are passed on unquestioned from one generation to the next.
There is mounting evidence from researchers, students and therapists in the United Kingdom that educators, including fieldwork educators, need to look again at some of the time-honoured ways of facilitating learning.
From Australia, a different type of ‘interactive therapist’ is being advocated (Higgs and Edwards 1999). Beyond technical competence, professionalism and a commitment to quality health care, such a person embraces the unique and uncertain situations that contemporary practice presents. This includes the conflicting values and ethical stances seen in social and cultural contexts. Ways of educating need to encompass and encourage these qualities.
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