Core Attitudes Statements

The Society’s Education and Training committee aims to better support educatores to teach using the Society's Core Curriculum. Consequently, we have:

  • Developed broad learning outcomes for each Core Curriculum Knowledge Statements
  • Identified assessment examples which align well with each Core Curriculum Skills Statement
  • Linked to relevant resources against each statement to help deliver them
For the Core Curriculum Attitude Statements, we have created a downloadable and editable proforma. This would act as a portfolio record for students to complete and reflect on alone or with their lecturers towards the end of their undergraduate courses.

To support completion of the proforma we supplied a list of typical undergraduate activities that would support each of the attitude statements.

For example, final year projects, placements, outreach contributions, conference contributions, research, or lab practicals.

The completion of this proforma helps demonstrate attainment of these attitudes when applying for jobs, preparing personal statements or reflecting on professional development (including inclusive approaches to working practices and relationships) and links directly to employability. This portfolio can therefore be used as a useful resource when preparing for future career steps.

 

Core Curriculum Attitude Statements

The Core Curriculum Attitude Statements represent key aspects of awareness, scientific maturity and responsibility that develop in undergraduate students through activities linked to their degree programme.
These can be used flexibly by educators and students to reflect on teaching and learning activities and what attitudes these specifically instil or evidence, respectively.

For example, educators could use this list to assess what specific attitudes key learning experiences or entire programmes develop, whereas students could reflect on the list and consider learning experiences that evidence they have achieved each specific attitude. This could be done before and after a specific learning activity to assess learning gain or perhaps used at key stages throughout the entire programme to chart the progressive development of these attitudes. Such practice would provide an interesting and useful record for incorporation into placement or job applications.

The proforma lists the Core Attitudes and offers an adaptable column for educators or students to use as a means of “checking off” attitudes covered by learning activities. The final column provides example tasks that might be used to evidence the specific attainment of the attitudes.

An example Core Curriculum Attitude Statement Proforma

No Having successfully completed an undergraduate degree in Pharmacology, graduates will have:  
Achieved?
(Y/N)
What tasks have been completed that evidence the attitudes listed?
1 A concern for detail and quality  
  • Data capture during practicals and subsequent analysis
  • Proof reading work
  • High quality academic writing
2 A curious attitude and openness when interpreting data  
  • Discussion of hypotheses which may fit data acquired in the discussion section of lab reports
  • Appraisal of scientific literature
  • Participation in peer review tasks
3 A confident and adaptable working attitude  
  • Adapting approaches to cope when outcome is not as predicted
  • Hybrid learning / working
  • Competency in the laboratory demonstrating Good Laboratory Practice
4 A willingness to accept a challenge  
  • Public engagement/ public speaking/ conference presentations
  • Participation in debates
  • Open day participation
  • Participation in co-curricular activities
  • Chairing teaching/ seminar sessions
5 The courage to stand up for their principles under pressure  
  • Asking questions on presentations
  • Participation in debates/ world cafe e.g., 3Rs, animal experimentation
  • Completion of resources such as mock legal trial for statins (Derek Lang, Pharmacology matters article)
6 A resilient attitude in the face of failure or unexpected outcomes  
  • Analysis and critique of why an experiment did not work
  • Self-assessment of assignments to identify how to improve
  • Effective use of feedback
7 The ability to work to the highest principles of scientific integrity, following ethical working practices  
  • Demonstration of scientific integrity
  • Consideration of ethics
  • Avoiding plagiarism
  • Completion of training programmes/lectures on ethics and integrity
8 The ability to apply creative/innovative approaches to addressing complex problems  
  • Design of experimental study
  • Preparation of mock grant proposals
Completion of research projects
9 The ability to maintain effective working relationships and collaborations  
  • Effective participation in any group work activity, recognising that people have different approaches to working and learning
  • Engagement in a collaborative working environment e.g. laboratory placements/final year projects
  • Peer review processes as a means of assessing group working skills
  • Participation in student-led societies, conference attendance/organisation
  • Use of LinkedIn or Alumni groups
  • Membership and interaction with learned societies
10 The ability to work to fixed deadlines and manage pressure  
  • Completion of coursework assignments which may sometimes compete/ overlap
  • Effective management of pressure in the lead up to summative assessments
11 A willingness to engage with developments across science and healthcare  
  • Engagement with public science event
  • Applying for studentships/ internships/ placements and volunteering roles.
  • Engaging with student initiatives (such as UG journals/ journal clubs)
  • Engagement with learned societies
12 The ability to identify employment opportunities and independently pursue personal career goals  
  • Application for placements, summer internships and careers
  • Engagement with talks and online support from placements team and career service
  • Engagement with learned society careers resources
  • Use of LinkedIn e.g. as Alumni groups
13 The confidence and ability to apply their skills in a real-world setting  
  • Engagement with work or laboratory placements/ internships
  • Identification of skills that can be applied across many different project types e.g. laboratory research, systematic reviewing
14 The skills for lifelong learning e.g., independence, time management, organisation and planning, initiative, knowledge transfer  
  • Developed throughout the programme for example through adherence to deadlines, engagement with taught activities, self-directed learning, creation of ideas, and independent development of research topics
15 An appreciation of the societal relevance and impact of pharmacology  
  • A group-work task or presentation considering the role of pharmacologists in society 
  • Historical case studies of pharmacological discoveries and their impact on society
  • Lessons learned from mistakes (e.g. MMR, thalidomide)
  • Examination of the role of pharmacology in the COVID pandemic
16 An appreciation of the value of public engagement and outreach  
  • Participation in public engagement activities
  • Open day involvement
17 The ability to self-assess performance  
  • Reflection on contribution to group work
  • Self and peer assessment
  • SMART analysis of personal / professional development
18 An understanding of how to evaluate risk  
  • Involvement in completing risk assessments (COSHH), genetic modification risk and ethics forms for projects or laboratory/mock laboratory activities
 

You can download this proforma with examples, and a  blank copy of the BPS Core Curriculum Attitude Statements Proforma

 We welcome all feedback on the below core attitudes. If you would like to send us some feedback, please email education@bps.ac.uk.



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