Research and Scholarship Activities - February/March 2026

Come along and discover the research and scholarship activities on offer in the Department of Medical Education (DME) in February and March 2026.  Where session recordings are available you can access them on our DME Research and Scholarship Training Hub.

Click here to view the recordings

Thursday 5 February (1-2pm)

Session Type: Research Focus Roundtable
Title: Supporting Health Professionals Students from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse background in Simulation-based Learning: Evidence and Practical Implications for Educators
Presenter: Rod Zhang (PhD Candidate, University of Queensland)
Overview: This session addresses the critical need to optimise Simulation-Based Learning (SBL) for students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) in health professions education. Drawing on insights from a scoping review and qualitative research with both students and educators, the session explores current gaps in the evidence and foregrounds the lived experiences of CALD students as they navigate challenging SBL on their journey to “becoming” professionals. The discussion will conclude with evidence-informed, practical strategies to help educators create more equitable and culturally responsive simulation environments.

Thursday 12 February (1-2pm)

Session Type: Research Training Focus Roundtable
Title: How to Build and Support Interprofessional and Interdisciplinary Research Teams in HPE
Presenter: Meredith Young (McGill University)
Overview: Much of the research generated in Health Professions Education (HPE) is the result of the interdisciplinary and interprofessional research teams. Despite the prominence of research teams in HPE scholarship and continued calls for an increase in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research in the broader scientific field, little guidance is available for how to build, support, and nurture research teams. Through this talk, she will share findings suggesting the importance of considering research teams as instances of teams, and practices that may support the transformative potential of research conducted in effective teams.

Wednesday 18 February (1-2pm)

Session Type: PhD Completion Seminar (Department of Surgery)
Title: Optimising Remediation Frameworks in Surgical Training: A Critical Analysis of Current Practices and Future Directions
Presenter: Kathryn McLeod (The University of Melbourne)
Attend via this Microsoft Teams link - Meeting ID: 488 474 077 635 71 Passcode: iP3Zf7T9

Thursday 19 February (1-2pm)

ANZAHPE Member Networking event

Title: Let's talk about... Positive strategies to enhance wellbeing in our workplaces
Presenter: Paula Brough
Register at this link

Thursday 26 February (1-2pm)

Session Type: Scholarship  Focus Roundtable
Title: Reflections from Where's the Patient Voice Conference
Presenter: Charlotte Denniston (The University of Melbourne)
Overview: The 3rd 'Where's the Patient Voice in Health Professional Education' was held in Vancouver in November 2025. Charlotte Denniston (Collaborative Practice Centre) attended and will share her reflections and key take homes from the event. This session will also be an opportunity to share what's happening to include the patient voice in health professional education at the University of Melbourne.

Thursday 5 March (1-2pm)

Session Type: Research Focus Roundtable
Title: The Long Arc of Training: Six Stories of Aspiring Doctors
Presenter: Dorene Balmer (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania)
Overview: In this talk, Dr. Balmer shares insights from a 12-year longitudinal qualitative study of six aspiring doctors, from the beginning of medical school all the way into clinical practice. Blending her own story with those of these aspiring doctors, she makes a compelling case for stories as teachers in health professions education—calling for listening much longer than a single telling, and for building caring relationships with participants who entrust us with their stories.

Thursday 12 March (1-2pm)

Session Type: Scholarship  Focus Roundtable
Title: Fostering Cultural Humility in Interprofessional Health Education: a Collaborative Online International Learning Approach
Presenters: Heather Gaunt and Rosie Shea (The University of Melbourne)
Overview: In this Roundtable we will share the outcomes of a study that developed and evaluated a novel Health Humanities Global Classroom (HHGC) approach, aiming to cultivate cultural humility in health professional students through Object-Based Learning and Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) pedagogies. The study, undertaken 2023-2025, with funding from Universitas 21 and UoM Global Classroom Initiatives (Chancellery), brought together interdisciplinary experts from health sciences and museums, at University of Melbourne, National University of Singapore, and University of Hong Kong, and included 58 student participants in total drawn from each university

Thursday 19 March (1-2pm)

ANZAHPE Online Professional Development

Title: How do I... evaluate my teaching practices in the classroom and beyond? (It’s everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s not a piece of cake)
Presenters: Daniela Castro de Jong and Jacqueline North
Register at this link

Thursday 26 March (1-2pm)

This session has had to be cancelled (likely to be re-scheduled later in the year)

Session Type: Research Training Focus
Title: Journal Club - Material Aspects of Practice-Based  Research (Tarasevich and Goldszmidt 2025)
Presenter: Discussion to be led by Robyn Woodward-Kron and Louise Allen (The University of Melbourne)
Overview: In this journal club session we will explore the concept of sociomateriality in health professions education (HPE) research, using Tarasevich and Goldszmidt's paper as a foundation. The session will involve discussions and activities to understand key material aspects shaping practice: time and space, technology, policy, and the sociocultural, as well as Lefebvre's spatial triad and its application to HPE contexts. The session aims to stimulate critical thinking about the role of materiality in practice-based research and its potential to offer new insights into perennial problems in medical education. Access the paper here

To download the Research & Scholarship Activities flyer for February/March 2026, click here