PhotoVoice Essays on the Social Determinants of Health - Part 2

Grant program: Teaching and Learning Development Grant (TLDG)

Grant recipient: Maya Gislason, Faculty of Health Sciences

Project team: Barb Berry, Teaching and Learning Centre, and Jemma Tosh, research assistant

Timeframe: January 2016 to November 2017

Funding: $5,000  

Course addressed: HSCI 340 – The Social Determinants of Health

Final report: View Maya Gislason's final report (PDF)

Description: This project is a continuation of my first TLDG project conducted in 2014-15, which sought to strengthen the learning experiences of third year Faculty of Health Sciences’ undergraduate students in HSCI 340 The Social Determinants of Health (view Maya Gislason’s first TLDG project here). Many lessons have been learned from running the first iteration of the project. We now have both research data and reflective pedagogical insights to draw upon to revise the PhotoVoice assignments and evaluation rubrics, as well as how to integrate experiential education principles and visual methodologies into the lectures and reading materials.

The aim of the current project is to find out if there are ways to engage students more fully in critically appraising the importance of the social determinants of health and illustrating its importance within an undergraduate health sciences student’s conceptual toolkit. Our end goal is twofold: firstly, to improve course learning outcomes; and secondly, to produce a syllabus, series of assignments, evaluation rubrics, and lecture materials which effectively integrate strategies for learning about the social determinants of health.

Questions addressed:

• Can other courses in the program better scaffold HSCI 340 in terms of critical thinking skills, reflexivity, and creativity?
• How could the learning outcomes for HSCI 340 be revised?
• Will the PhotoVoice assignment be effective in encouraging student appreciation of the social determinants of health?
• What are student perceptions of the effectiveness of the PhotoVoice assignment? What suggestions for improvement do they have?
• Do students think they learn more about social determinants of health through a PhotoVoice assignment, than they would through traditional assessment methods? And if so, how does the assignment help them achieve this?

Keywords: undergraduate; social determinants of health; syllabus; evaluation rubrics; experiential education