SCI-Midatlantic and UMDNJ Plan Master Educators' Guild Meeting to Address Science Education for Health Practitioners
Context for Development of the 2010 Spring Symposium
In June of 2009, a panel convened by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) issued a report that defines scientific competencies for future physicians. Going forward, the report is meant to aid undergraduate institutions and medical schools in developing curricula that will equip future doctors with the tools necessary to provide scientifically sound care to their patients. While the panel was charged to develop guidelines for the education of physicians, the principles identified in the report can be adapted to the education of all health professionals. The purpose of the MEG 2010 Spring Symposium is to consider some of the principles identified in the panel report and to examine a model of science education that already may be effectively addressing them. Are the principles identified in the report ones that faculty at UMDNJ and surrounding undergraduate schools would want to embrace? If so, how might these principles be implemented in pre-professional as well as professional and post-graduate education? The Spring Symposium will be a collaboration of the UMDNJ-MEG with the SENCER Center for Innovation-MidAtlantic, a consortium of undergraduate science educators, bringing together on one campus those who prepare students for professional education and those who provide it.
The Keynote speakers include Paul Marantz, M.D., Associate Dean for Clinical Research Education at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City who was a member of the AAMC-HHMI panel, and Wm. David Burns, Executive Director of the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement. Mr. Burns is a co-founder of SENCER, Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities, a curriculum development program funded by the National Science Foundation aimed at creating courses that engage students in the process of scientific thinking, not just the facts of science, as a means of becoming engaged citizens of the 21st century. Faculty who have developed SENCER model courses help students to recognize and experience science as a way of thinking rather than a set of facts to be consumed. Clearly the application of such approaches to the education of students in the health professions has the potential to achieve the recommendations of the AAMC-HHMI panel. Additional presenters include Drs. Monica Devanas and Terry McGuire, faculty at Rutgers University who have developed SENCER courses, and faculty from several UMDNJ schools who are implementing strategies to actively engage students in learning.
Principles identified by the AAMC-HHMI panel that will be considered include the following:
- Health practice "requires grounding in scientific principles and knowledge, as well as understanding how current medical knowledge is scientifically justified, and how that knowledge evolves."
- "Curiosity, skepticism, objectivity, and the use of scientific reasoning are fundamental to the practice of medicine. These attributes should permeate the entire medical education continuum."
- "Modern medicine requires the ability to synthesize information and collaborate across disciplines."
- "Effective clinical problem solving and the ability to evaluate competing claims...depend on the acquisition, understanding, and application of scientific knowledge and scientific reasoning based on evidence."
Objectives of the 2010 Spring Symposium
Facilitating partnerships between undergraduate institutions and professional schools committed to educating health providers in all disciplines would accelerate the implementation of these principles at all levels of education. UMDNJ is amongst those schools in a unique position to "collaborate across disciplines" in the development of educational strategies. The panel's report states "the desired outcome of the medical education process should be scientifically inquisitive and compassionate physicians [nurses, dentists, therapists, public health officials, researchers] who have the motivation, tools, and knowledge to find the necessary information to provide the best and most scientifically sound care for their patients". The chief goal of the SENCER program is to develop scientifically-grounded, engaged citizens, by increasing scientific rigor and relevance in undergraduate courses. Might the success of the SENCER approach in undergraduate education be applicable to achieving such an outcome in professional education? Are there SENCER principles that can be adapted to undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate education in professional schools?
As stated in the Introduction to the panel report, it is widely agreed that for future health care providers it is important to:
1. educate them to be inquisitive
2. help them build a strong scientific foundation for future medical practice
3. equip them with the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind to integrate new scientific discovery into their medical practice throughout their professional lives
With these tenets in mind, the Symposium Organizing Committee has scheduled two keynote talks and a panel discussion in the morning, followed by small group sessions in the afternoon, and established a set of Learning Objectives. Participants in the Symposium, will be able to:
- Apply teaching strategies that engage students in inquisitive learning
- Develop strategies to emphasize content areas that deserve attention in the curriculum
- Develop strategies to engage students in identification of basic scientific principles
- Identify and utilize effective faculty development exercises
- Identify and implement active learning methodologies
- Develop discipline appropriate medical simulations for effective learning
- Develop cases and questions appropriate for use in Team Based Learning style sessions
Click here MEG Flyer (Acrobat (PDF) 95kB Jan27 10)to view the symposium flyer.
Click here to access the report.
The Symposium announcement by the Master Educators' Guild