FST/ASME Educational Research Grant Awarded to Arpan Tahim

The FST/ASME Educational Research Grant has been awarded to Arpan Tahim. Arpan is an ST5 doctoral student with the Institute of Education Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, London Deanery. His winning entry is entitled Understanding Workplace-Based Assessment – How Surgeons Learn through the Use of Workplace-Based Assessment during Specialist Training.

The grant, offered by the College’s Faculty of Surgical Trainers (FST) and the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) is up to £3,000 and can be used to support either a research study or evaluation of a teaching innovation in any field of surgical education and training.

Arpan Tahim said:

“I am delighted to have received this FST/ASME Educational Research Grant for my study investigating how surgeons in training learn through workplace-based assessment (WBA). As an oral and maxillofacial surgery trainee, I have first-hand experience of WBA and the challenges of using it effectively in diverse surgical environments.

“The study will be conducted through UCL Institute of Education and aims to better understand the complex social-interactional processes that occur during WBAs and the learning that subsequently results from them. It will involve audiovisual analysis of the in-situ WBAs, which surgeons in training undergo, triangulated with data derived from completed assessment proformas and participant interviews.

“The insights gained from this research will be of benefit to learners themselves – to help them appreciate the purpose and process of these episodes, and thus improve their own reflective education. Understanding these multifaceted learning events more fully will help educators/assessors, policymakers and opinion leaders direct and integrate their use in curricula, thus improving surgical education in the future. This research lies in both surgical and medical education fields and for this reason I am extremely grateful and honoured to have been awarded this grant from both the Faculty of Surgical Trainers and the Association for the Study of Medical Education.”

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