ArticleAdvances in health sciences education : theory and practice2021
Creative leaps in theory: the might of abduction.
Article in Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Community stakeholders' perspectives on supporting the well-being of older adults: a focus group study on lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC public health · 2026Article
- The logic of medical reasoning: toward an integrated inductive, deductive, and abductive approach to clinical practices.Philosophy, ethics, and humanities in medicine : PEHM · 2025Article
- Diagnostic Reasoning in Surgical Pathology.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2025Article
- Research Dissemination Strategies in Pediatric Emergency Care Using a Professional Twitter (X) Account: A Mixed Methods Developmental Study of a Logic Model Framework.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Concepts and Reasoning: a Conceptual Review and Analysis of Logical Issues in Empirical Social Science Research.Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2024Review
- Making space to learn about teaching: expanding teaching horizons through postgraduate education.Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice · 2023Article
- How to Grow a Professional Identity: Philosophical Gardening in the Field of Medical Education.Perspectives on medical education · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
1 author.
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Abstract
This paper argues that abductive reasoning has a central place in theorizing Health Professions Education. At the root of abduction lies a fundamental debate: How do we connect practice, which is always singular and unique, with theory, which describes the world in terms of rules, generalizations, and universals? While abduction was initially seen as the 'poor cousin' of deduction and induction, ultimately it has something important to tell us about the role of imagination and humility in theorizing Health Professions Education. It is that which makes theory possible, because it allows us to ask what might be the case and calls attention to the role of creative leaps in theory. Becoming aware of the abductive reasoning we already perform in our research allows us to take the role of imagination-something rarely associated with theory-seriously.
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