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Teaching Health Law

Problem-Based Learning regarding “Fractious Problems” in Health Law: Reflections on an Educational Experiment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Roberta M. Berry
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Extract

This essay describes an interdisciplinary educational experiment in health law. The experiment was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), received Institutional Review Board approvals, incorporated inter-disciplinary faculty and graduate students from several universities in Atlanta, and employed problem-based learning (PBL). After discussing my motivation to undertake this experimental approach to teaching health law, I explain how the course was developed and structured and how we are assessing its results. I also offer some reflections on why other health law teachers might be motivated to incorporate some features of our experimental approach into their own classes, and some thoughts on how they might do so based on lessons learned.

I undertook this experiment to test in an educational setting an approach to problem solving that I have developed for addressing certain kinds of seemingly intractable policy problems. I call this a “navigational approach” to “fractious problems.”

Type
JLME Column
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , Winter 2011 , pp. 694 - 703
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2011

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Footnotes

Charity Scott, J.D., is a Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Law, Health & Society at the Georgia State University College of Law. (charity@gsu.edu)

References

Other collaborators brought a range of motivations to the experiment, associated with their reflection on and experience with ethics education for future professionals in a variety of disciplines.Google Scholar
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NSF EESE Award ID 0832912.Google Scholar
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We also administered two other, existing assessment instruments so that we could compare the results from our newly developed SkillSET with the results of these other instruments.Google Scholar
Two of the 21 withdrew from the course for reasons unrelated to our experiment.Google Scholar
Students were drawn from Georgia Tech Ph.D. programs in bioengineering, biomedical engineering, chemical and biomolecular engineering, and biology, and the Georgia Tech M.S. program in public policy; the Georgia State University College of Law J.D. program and J.D./M.A. in philosophy program; the Emory University Ph.D. programs in neuroscience and in interdisciplinary liberal arts, and the Emory M.A. program in bioethics; and the Morehouse School of Medicine Ph.D. program in biomedical science and the Ph.D. in biomedical science/M.D. program.Google Scholar
In 2009, one team lost its representation of one of the institutions and one team lost its representation of the humanities due to course withdrawals.Google Scholar
A member of our research team's Senior Personnel, Wendy Newstetter, was key in aiding this operationalization.Google Scholar
For our fall 2009 experimental course, we also administered SkillSET at approximately nine months and again at 18 months after the conclusion of the course. For our fall 2010 experimental course, we scheduled a nine-month post-course administration but not an 18-month post-course administration because the grant project was to conclude before that date. These administrations of SkillSET were for the purpose of testing longer-term skill retention.Google Scholar
For a fuller explication of these skills and their ft with each of the five features of fractious problems, see Berry, , supra note 2, at 12–14.Google Scholar
Senior personnel serving as the principal facilitators for the course in both fall 2009 and fall 2010 were, in alphabetical order: Berry, Roberta M. Hue, Gillian Queen, Edward L.Google Scholar
The navigational skills template included descriptions of each of the six skills together with explanations of their value in addressing the five features of fractious problems. The PBL skills template was adapted from a template used in undergraduate biomedical engineering PBL courses, and was provided by a member of our research team's Senior Personnel, Wendy Newstetter, and adapted by Berry, Roberta M. for use in this experimental setting. For more on PBL skills and the PBL process, see Newstetter, W. C., “Fostering Integrative Problem Solving in Biomedical Engineering: The PBL Approach,” Annals of Biomedical Engineering 34, no. 2 (2006): 217–225.Google Scholar
Significant contributions to the drafting of these problems were made, in alphabetical order, by the following: Berry, Roberta M. Gabel, Jessica Hue, Gillian Kinlaw, Kathy Queen, Edward L. Wolf, Leslie E.Google Scholar
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Dr.Robert Nerem, Parker H. Petit Distinguished Chair for Engineering in Medicine and Institute Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
SkillSET was drafted by Berry, Roberta M. Kirkman, Robert, with the assistance of Levine, Aaron D.Google Scholar