Certificate in

Medical Education
Arrangements for the course
July: Teaching & Learning
Critical Thinking and
Higher Intellectual Skills
August: Curriculum Development
Assessing Students
September: Instructional Materials Development
Continuing Professional Development
Educational Research
 Certificate in
Medical Education
Arrangements for this workshop
Sunday: The New Paradigm (implications)
Intro to Teaching & Learning
Monday: Approaches to Teaching & Learning
Tuesday: Instructional Design
Critical Thinking
Wednesday: Critical Thinking
Area of Competence: Teaching & Learning
Module Competencies
• Facilitating learning of
concepts, principles, and problem-solving
skills & procedures
attitudes
• Analysing topics and tasks to determine the
learning hierarchies involved and the most
appropriate sequence for teaching and learning
• Applying Instructional Design approaches to
teaching and instructional materials development
 Conceptions
of
Teaching and Learning
What do you believe
you are doing
in your teaching?
Teacher-centred Student-centred
Content-oriented Learning-oriented

Imparting Facilitating
information understanding

Presenting content Facilitating understanding

or process through engagement with
both content and process
 Where do we need to be?

Teacher-Centred Student-Centred
+ +
Content-Oriented Learning-Oriented
 Understanding
how people learn

Implications for
teaching & learning
Looking at Student Learning

Two approaches to learning:

• surface approach
- concerned with remembering words

• deep approach
- concerned with understanding the
ideas behind the words
Looking at Student Learning
• surface approach students rely on the
teacher to define learning tasks
• deep approach students look for meaning
and react critically with what they are
learning
• not all students develop thinking skills;
rote learners probably do not
Students need to be able to adopt
a deep approach to learning
 Looking at how
Students acquire Knowledge

• knowledge is not “absorbed”

• knowledge is not about “remembering”

 Looking at how
Students acquire Knowledge

• knowledge is structured by individuals in

meaningful ways which grow and change
over time
• the way in which knowledge is stored is
related to the way it is encoded when it is
learned
 Looking at how
Students acquire Knowledge
• new content can be meaningfully learned only
where the student can relate the content to
already-existing cognitive structures in a
meaningful way
• understanding of content is an activity of
a constructivist nature which is carried out by the
student using cognitive strategies
 Looking at how
Students acquire Knowledge
Schema Theory
• Schema: the “building block” of cognition
• new ideas are built on to the student’s existing
knowledge structure
– relevant prior knowledge is therefore important
• the student constructs a meaningful
representation in a network of propositions
 Looking at how
Students acquire Knowledge
Schema Theory
• schema is a valid explanation for how learners
process and interpret information
• strongly situated schemata might make it difficult
for learners to develop functional problem-solving
skills that are appropriate across knowledge
domains
 Looking at how
Students acquire Knowledge
Thinking & Learning
• thinking is essential to the acquisition of
knowledge
• knowledge is essential to thinking
• skillful thinking is the ability to apply knowledge
effectively
• people possessing the same knowledge can differ
significantly in how skillfully they apply what they
know
 Looking at how
Students acquire Knowledge
Thinking & Learning
• high level thinking skills can be improved by
training
• teaching of thinking skills is complementary to
the teaching of content
• thinking ability and knowledge are the warp and
woof of intellectual competence
• most people have the potential to develop far
more effective thinking skills than they do
 Looking at how
Students acquire Knowledge

• experts differ from novices in that they know

more about their area of expertise
• experts not only know more,
- they know they know more,
- they know better how to use what they know,
- what they know is better organised and more
readily accessible,
- and they know better how to learn still more
(Nickerson et al, 1985)
 Looking at how
Students acquire Knowledge

• Cognitive skills that are necessary, or helpful, to

the acquisition, use, and control of knowledge,
and other cognitive skills, can be thought of as
metacognitive skills
(Nickerson et al, 1985)
 Looking at how
Students acquire Knowledge

• Metacognition

a person’s knowledge concerning his/her

own mental processes and the active
monitoring and consequent regulation and
orchestration of these processes
(Flavell (1978)
 Looking at how
Students acquire Knowledge

• ethical and intellectual development

progression from simplistic
acceptance of facts through confusion
about the nature of knowledge to a
recognition of need for a personal
philosophy of life

(Perry, 1970)
 Looking at how
Students acquire Knowledge

Students have different abilities in relation to

cognitive and metacognitive skills
Appropriate training can help each student to
develop both cognitive and metacognitive skills
More highly developed cognitive and metacognitive
abilities will result in better learning and more
competent application of knowledge
Application to Student Learning
Students need:
• to learn how to learn
• to develop a deep approach to learning
• to develop thinking skills
• to develop metacognitive skills
• to become more self-directing in their learning
Application to Student Learning

Learning how to learn and how to think

can be encouraged:
• through study skills courses

• within the content area

- encouragement to think about what
is being taught
- encouragement to think about how
it is being learned
 Implications for Health
Professions Education
• The curriculum and its assessment are key
factors affecting quality of learning
• The teacher needs to create learning
experiences which facilitate the construction of
meaning and to develop assessment
procedures which measure the organisation
and utilisation of knowledge