Exploring an undergraduate public health learning environment through the Teaching for Understanding (TFU) framework

Background: The BSc Public Health & Health Promotion in University College Cork aims to produce graduates who are passionate about their discipline. Teachers need to communicate this ‘passion’ to students, but it can be difficult to know whether this has been achieved. The TFU framework makes such an outcome explicit, through demonstrating student understanding and identifying students’ active engagement in learning. Aim: To examine the learning environment of a first year undergraduate module in public health. Method: The TFU framework provided four dimensions for analysing module EH1005: Population Health: Results: The identifiable Generative Topic of EH1005 is the wider determinants of health. Five Understanding Goals clarify what students need to understand from the module: (1) factors determining health (2) health issues in the public domain (3) poverty as a health determinant (4) major population health issues and (5) the role of health interventions. Although Ongoing Assessment was mainly ‘teacher led’, it comprised different formats including informal class and group discussion, as well as formal oral and written assignments. Students could therefore Perform their Understanding across different contexts. The results of the Ongoing Assessments showed that most students reached the Understanding Goals for the module. Conclusion: Applying the TFU framework to articulate the Generative Topic for EH1005, as well as identifying clear Understanding Goals, provides a means of making explicit what students need to understand in order to recognise what factors determine the health of populations. The different formats for Ongoing Assessment and contexts for Performing Understanding, show that EH1005 can accommodate a range of learning styles. The TFU analysis also provides information to improve delivery of the module by identifying less emphasis on ‘self’ assessment as a means of deepening student understanding.