In Beta is a virtual community of practice with a focus on critical discussion of physiotherapy education. The concept grew from a conversation which took place in 2016 at the ER-WCPT in Liverpool. The creators Michael Rowe and Ben Ellis saw that some of the most interesting conversations took place outside of the lecture theaters. They got chatting about how they could take the good things about conferences and make it more accessible for everyone.
The idea of In Beta is for physiotherapy educators to bring a teaching and learning idea that they have been working on themselves or with colleagues within their institution to a group of peers in order to spark discussion, feedback and collaboration to improve and develop the original idea prior to releasing it into the classroom or clinic – Michael Rowe.
They settled on creating an international community of physiotherapy educators on Google+ with scheduled online conversations on topics of interest to physiotherapy educators every couple of months. The best thing is that even though you may miss the conversation live, the planning documents are available as Google Docs and the conversation is available as a podcast, available to download whenever you feel like you have the time to give it your full attention.
The first session covered the topic of Inquiry-based Learning and how this technique enables students to develop critical thinking. The google document and podcast is available retrospectively.
The second session entitled Internationalisation of the Curriculum, is another fantastic resource, and is available as a podcast and as a document. In this episode the team discussed what an international curriculum would look like, how to make it happen and how to evaluate the idea.
Ben and Michael are currently planning the next sessions which will include:
- Teaching Critical Thinking in Physiotherapy
- innovative Approached to Physiotherapy Curriculum Design
- Decluttering the Pre-Registration Physotherapy Curriculum
Don’t miss out on these amazing discussions, sign up to the Google+ Community and share your ideas for future topics too!
Don’t Miss Out on the Opportunity to be a Part of a Forward Thinking Community!
If you want to learn more about InBeta the website is now live. This is where they will be sharing the outputs from the sessions, including the podcasts, background information and further reading.