MedEDPORTAL Featured Publication: Dr. Louise Aronson

Louise Aronson, MD 

UCSF LEaP (Learning from your Experiences as a Professional): Guidelines for Critical Reflection

These literature-derived guidelines provide a stand-alone tool instructors can use to help learners effectively reflect on their learning, experiences and professional development. The three page guidelines include instructions on effective use (page 1), a step by step guide through the reflective process (page 2), and answers to a set of frequently asked questions (page 3). They were developed for use with written reflections, but with the exception of one of the FAQs on page 3, can be applied to reflection in any form, including oral or video. More

2 Career Opportunities in the Office of Undergraduate Medical Education

Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) is the portion of the SOM Dean’s Office responsible for the education of every UCSF Medical Student. Its four sub-units; Assessment and Professional Development, Clinical Learning, Medical Student Services, and UME central; oversee the curricular and student services components of the MD program. Our purpose is to guide medical students and faculty from diverse backgrounds through journeys to excellence and leadership in patient care, research, education, and public service.

1. UME Advisor/Specialist

Reporting to UME’s Medical Student Services Manager, this full-time position will contribute advising and operational management skills critical to the success of the MD curriculum. The UME Advisor/Specialist, an essential member of the UME team, provides advising to medical students and also supervises complex curricular operations such as the clinical core and fourth year lotteries, the clinical core operations committee, course and clerkship coordination, and new course approval systems. The incumbent ensures students’ academic progress and that their individualized learning plans meet the MD program requirements. The Advisor/Specialist holds quarterly meetings with departmental course and/or clerkship coordinators to ensure that all coordinators are kept up-to-date with curriculum changes and to bring important issues coordinators raise back to UME and its committee structures; and performs other duties as assigned. Position details on UCSF HR website: Req No. 37332BR

2. UME Advising Coordinator

Reporting to UME’s Medical Student Services Manager, this full-time position will coordinate the UME advising practice and advising resources that support students throughout the medical curriculum. The UME Advising Coordinator, an essential member of the UME team, coordinates the UME advising practice and campus resources to support all students in achieving competency and improving health and healthcare locally, across the US, and abroad. Mechanisms include maintaining UME iROCKET (online curriculum) sites for each class of students, running the clinical schedule change request system, and coordinating workshops and information sessions. The incumbent ensures accuracy of students’ study lists and transcripts as students enter and exit the MD curriculum; and performs other duties as assigned. Position details on UCSF HR website: Req No. 37331BR

The process of problem-based learning: what works and why

Objectives In this review, we portray the process of problem-based learning (PBL) as a cognitive endeavour whereby the learner constructs mental models relevant to problems. Two hypotheses are proposed to explain how learning is driven in PBL; an activation–elaboration hypothesis and a situational interest hypothesis.

Methods Research relevant to these hypotheses is discussed. In addition, research studying the effects of various support strategies used in PBL is reviewed. Finally, we summarise a number of recent studies in which a new ‘micro-analytical’ methodology was used to trace the process of PBL in the natural classroom setting.

Conclusions We conclude that there is considerable support for the idea that PBL works because it encourages the activation of prior knowledge in the small-group setting and provides opportunities for elaboration on that knowledge. These activities facilitate the comprehension of new information related to the problem and enhance its long-term memorability. In addition, there is evidence that problems arouse situational interest that drives learning. Flexible scaffolding provided by cognitively and socially congruent tutors also seems to be reasonably effective, as opposed to ‘hard’ scaffolding represented by, for instance, worksheets or questions added to problems. Small-group work protects against dropout and encourages students to study regularly. Initially, students do not study much beyond the learning issues generated; the development of personal agency in self-study needs time to develop. The extent of learning in PBL results from neither group collaboration only (the social constructivist point of view) nor individual knowledge acquisition only; both activities contribute equally to learning in PBL.

From: Medical Education 2011: 45: 792–806

Test-enhanced learning in medical education

Context In education, tests are primarily used for assessment, thus permitting teachers to assess the efficacy of their curriculum and to assign grades. However, research in cognitive psychology has shown that tests can also directly affect learning by promoting better retention of information, a phenomenon known as the testing effect.

Cognitive psychology research Cognitive psychology laboratory studies show that repeated testing of information produces superior retention relative to repeated study, especially when testing is spaced out over time. Tests that require effortful retrieval of information, such as short-answer tests, promote better retention than tests that require recognition, such as multiple-choice tests. The mnemonic benefits of testing are further enhanced by feedback, which helps students to correct errors and confirm correct answers.

Application to medical education Medical educational research has focused extensively on assessment issues. Such assessment research permits the conclusion that clinical expertise is founded on a broad fund of knowledge and effective memory networks that allow easy access to that knowledge. Test-enhanced learning can potentially strengthen clinical knowledge that will lead to improved expertise.

Conclusions Tests should be given often and spaced out in time to promote better retention of information. Questions that require effortful recall produce the greatest gains in memory. Feedback is crucial to learning from tests. Test-enhanced learning may be an effective tool for medical educators to use in promoting retention of clinical knowledge.

Medical Education
Volume 42, Issue 10, pages 959–966, October 2008