Our peer-reviewed CEDAR community blog will feature evidence-based posts championing scholarly teaching and learning practices, authored by SLU School of Medicine faculty, staff and trainees.
The CEDAR community blog will occasionally feature outside invited authors. This work will foster ongoing connectedness and showcase the expertise of our medical and biomedical educator community.
Faculty, staff and trainees interested in contributing to our CEDAR community blog will receive a blog post template with instructions for preparing the post. Collaborative authorship teams are welcome. Upon submission, posts will undergo peer review by our Editorial Review Board. All posts must successfully complete the peer review and revision process prior to publication. Publication is not guaranteed until the peer review and revision is complete.
Editor-in-chief: Kristina Dzara, Ph.D.
Editorial Review Board: Our Editorial Review Board comprises seven members holding education roles at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine and SSM Health.
Blog authors: We are currently recruiting blog authors.
For authorship inquiries, contact editor-in-chief Kristina Dzara, Ph.D., via email.
Posts
The Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy is a systematic description of how students build knowledge structures while learning different tasks or subjects. The SOLO taxonomy can be used to enhance the quality of teaching and provide a systematic way of developing deep understanding, moving students through five levels of knowledge acquisition: pre-structural, unistructural, multi-structural, relational, and extended abstract. Each level builds on the previous and embodies a higher degree of complexity and depth of understanding.
Active learning is a concept that has gained increasing importance in medical education. It describes a variety of approaches meant to further engage students in learning and can improve learning outcomes through teaching techniques such as case-based learning, project-based learning, and simulations. Active learning strategies promote retention and application of new knowledge compared to the passive provision of information via lecture.
The past, present and future of AI, particularly large language models (LLMs) in medical education are emerging topics that are important for the modern medical educator. This blog post will discuss the basics of how LLMs work, how they are currently being used, and potential possibilities and pitfalls of use in medical education.
Peer instruction is an active learning technique designed to identify learning needs through problem solving and formative feedback. This supports deeper understanding of complex content and encourages higher-order thinking. Peer instruction also helps address deficiencies in conceptual understanding that occur as a result of passive learning experiences. Peer instruction allows students to be more actively engaged in their learning, as it supports self-assessment to determine if concepts are understood.
Curriculum design is a complex process that involves tasks related to design, implementation, assessment, and evaluation and optimization of study academic programs. An important component of curriculum development is curriculum mapping. Curriculum mapping involves aligning instruction with desired goals and outcomes to ensure the connections are easily visualized.
Near-peer teaching can be used to foster learning at multiple levels, including to develop professional skills and enhance content understanding for near-peer teachers and to create a safe and supportive environment for junior learners. There are many considerations when employing near-peer teaching. Involving learners in leadership, supporting near-peer teachers in their work and promoting a learner centered approach can help make a successful near-peer teaching initiative.
Bias in assessment can negatively affect trainees in a variety of ways. Fair and unbiased assessment is essential to ensure competency, provide equal opportunities, and encourage respect for all learners regardless of their individual characteristics. This post details five common types of bias related to the assessment of trainees and strategies educators can use to mitigate them.
Formative feedback in medical education involves observing the trainee’s performance within a certain domain and comparing it against an expected standard. Formative feedback should be clear, specific, timely, actionable, and based on observed activity or behaviors. In undergraduate medical education, the 13 American Association of Medical Colleges core entrustable professional activities (Core EPAs) are one example of a structure for designing medical education curricula, providing formative feedback, and creating expectations for trainees. Formative feedback allows educators to reinforce the importance of applying textbook knowledge and incorporating continued learning to improve patient care and health outcomes.
Imagine the following: You teach anatomy and your learners are rapidly approaching their first exam. One of your learners waits until the last few days before the exam to start studying. Once she starts, she only spends an hour or two each day reviewing, and primarily reviews from the PowerPoint slides rather than going into the laboratory. When she visits the laboratory, she brings a list of structures to identify and checks them off one by one as she studies a dissection prepared by teaching assistants. On the day of the exam, she receives a poor exam grade because she was unable to remember the names of specific structures, or their relationship to one another. When she receives her grade, she is surprised because she used the same strategies that have always worked for her in other courses. What went wrong?
In 2009, researchers compared maternal complications of delivery and stratified the complication rates into quintiles of residency programs based on where the delivering obstetrician completed their training. In comparing the quintile with the highest complication rate to the quintile with the lowest complication rate, there was a 3.3% absolute risk reduction in maternal complications. It matters where your obstetrician completed their residency.
Educators may now be familiar with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s (ACGME) recognition of competency-based medical education through their introduction of Milestones for Residents and Fellows.
However, members of clinical competency committees and other stakeholders responsible for developing curriculum in graduate medical education may wonder how to design learning experiences that are indeed competency-based, especially those who may not have had formal training in curriculum design. Carraccio and colleagues developed a four-step process for operationalizing competency-based medical education that ACGME referenced in their Milestones Guidebook.
We are pleased to announce the inaugural members of our Saint Louis University School of Medicine Center for Educator Development, Advancement, and Research (CEDAR) community blog editorial review board!
Welcome to the Saint Louis University School of Medicine Center for Educator Development, Advancement, and Research Community Blog.