Reconsidering "Scholarship Reconsidered"

Developing scholarly projects in education: A primer for medical teachers. Beckman TJ, Cook, DA. Medical Teacher. 2007; 29: 210-218. Available online. 

What does it mean to be an educational scholar? In 1990, Ernest Boyer published "Scholarship Reconsidered" from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. This text began a conversation that changed the definition of faculty scholarship in higher education to recognize the contribution of educational scholarly projects. In 1997, Glassick's "Scholarship Assessed" continued the conversation by identifying six standards with which to evaluate high quality educational scholarship.

In this article, Beckman and Cook keep the conversation rolling. This primer outlines a framework for designing high quality scholarly education projects such as curriculum, review articles, or research. The authors' approach is based on the four domains presented by Boyer and the six standards by Glassick, but - as appropriate for an audience of busy clinicians - has been neatly condensed into only three steps. 

These three steps (Refine study question, Identify study design & methods, and Select outcomes) guide educational scholars along a path to high quality scholarly work. The article is a salacious guide to developing rigorous research. With its excerpts from novel educational research textbooks (yes, these exist) to a quick yet comprehensive section on validity, this article should be a staple in any research curriculum or resource file. This article - along with the work of Boyer and Glassick - are must reads for budding educators, researchers, and - at the very least - those that will ultimately promote them.

Bottom Line:

Beckman and Cook harness the power of Boyer and Glassick (some higher education household names) to deliver a comprehensive framework for building (and evaluating!) high quality educational scholarship in three perfectly-portioned steps. Print this article, grab your highlighter, and delve in.