LAUSR

Research in health professions education (HPE) has traditionally drawn its dominant influence from the physical sciences, with their beginning assumption that randomised controlled trials are the reference standard for research. Regehr argued in 2010 that this influence was reflected in the imperatives of proof and simplicity that have been adopted by many in HPE, as illustrated when the focus is on showing that ‘something works’ as an educational intervention followed by efforts to test generalisability across a variety of contexts. Most such efforts to show that something works are underpinned by an assumption of linearity where outcomes are considered to be the unique result of the tested intervention.