Abstracts
Teaching Applied Psychoanalytic Ideas with Online Assisted Technologies: An Australian Case Example
Tuesday 5 May 2009, 1330 – 1400
Presenter: Sarron Goldman
Edith Cowan University, WA
Presenter Biography
Dr. Sarron Goldman is a practising clinical psychologist and Coordinator of the Counselling and Psychotherapy Programmes at Edith Cowan University. He has been a practising as a clinician for over two decades. His academic career spans: the School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Western Australia (Perth); the Psychology Department Midrand University and the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg). Sarron is a professional member of numerous professional organisations including: the Australian Psychology Society (APS); the Psychotherapy and Counselling Association of Western Australia (PACAWA); the Association for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists in Western Australia (APPWA), the International Balint Society, the APS Division of Clinical Psychology. Sarron has a special interest in: psychoanalysis; the relationship between culture and the intrapsychic and psychology of the internet.
Abstract
There is burgeoning interest in psychological applications in the online space. University education is at the forefront of the charge. An increasing scholarship is pondering teaching and learning of under these new conditions. Psychology has made good first progress. First considerations include: the development of cybertherapies, computer-based supervision, online streaming video and audio applications, learning through simulation, amongst other things. These are early days in the piece: technological advancement far outpacing e-learning scholarship in the area. Within psychology, psychoanalysis has been a late-starter to the internet. There are a variety of reasons for this. Anecdotal evidence, notwithstanding, suggest that a fair amount of psychoanalytic teaching and learning occurs in an online medium. Curiously, to date, there is not a single article reflecting on this practice.
The present paper seeks to address the hiatus in the extant literature. It comprises a reflection upon the hybrid teaching methodology employed in the online teaching of first applied psychoanalytic concepts to a mixed undergraduate/postgraduate cohort. An exploratory-descriptive account is given of students’ engagement with the material, the teacher-developer’s reflections on his teaching experience, as well as formal and informal student feedback.
The psychoanalysis taught in present application was rooted in the consulting room. Conceptual foundations were in service of an applied clinical understanding. It began with the assumption that simply placing psychoanalytic material online does not equate with online psychoanalytic learning. Considering a discipline as complex and controversial as psychoanalysis, course content could not be the only concern. Effective psychoanalytic e-learning would need to occur in an open, facilitative learning environment; one that encouraged self-directed learning activities, reflection, exploration, critical thinking and involvement with content and learning activities directly related to real issues. Specifically the course took as objectives to promote: interactivity, situated learning, reflexivity and learning at different level.
The overall student response to the course was overwhelmingly positive. Results from the standardised course evaluation instrument bore this out. This study would seem to suggest that there are manifold advantages to teaching psychoanalytic ideas in the online medium. There were the usual ones concerning outcomes: students having greater access; convenience and developing proficiency with technology use. There were other advantages. We saw in the present virtual classroom in a matter of 14 weeks, virtual strangers became a coherent, interactive learning community. Psychoanalytic knowledge acquired in this context was dynamic, locally and historically situated. Insofar as the present e-classroom made multiple types of relationships possible and was able to provide both private and public spaces it cultivated reflective practice. Online learning was also conducive to diversity in learning. It was capable of supporting both undergraduate and postgraduate students in the same learning environment, as well a variety of student needs, skill levels, abilities, computer knowledge and backgrounds. In spite of the anecdotal nature of the present study, it lends credence to the suggestion that the online medium may have benefits that exceed the traditional classroom.
