Day 1 – Morning

We kicked off the course with a great session by Dr. David Roberts. David inspired us to invest in our professional development to improve our teaching, He also talked about the ladder of competence and the goal to move from unconscious incompetence to mindful competence.  He reminded us that we don’t cover material, we uncover knowledge.

In the next talk, we learned about the “Science of Learning” from Dr. Hayes. This first session was meant to set the foundation for the whole course and some of the concepts introduced by Dr. Hayes will be discussed further throughout the course. We purposefully interleave concepts and use retrieval throughout this course! Dr. Hayes talked about Adult Learning Theory and active learning strategies and encouraged everyone to try out these strategies. Dr. Hayes shared her framework for the Science of Learning as an umbrella term that includes how memory works, dual process theory, adult learning theory, cognitive learning theories, and active learning strategies:

She also talked about the importance of the learning environment and ensuring that learners feel safe, there is mutual respect and there is activation and engagement. This is a theme that will keep coming up and we strive to model a safe learning environment for you all!

Learning happens when the brain is taxed and works hard. Who’s ready to work their brains??!!

 We then heard from Dr. Chris Smith about clinical teaching.   During his talk, he told us that patients, teachers, and learners, like clinical teaching, but there are a lot of barriers and challenges to teaching at the bedside. One of the biggest barriers is TIME!  One way to overcome the TIME challenge is to prepare!

He also talked about the microskills of teaching (something every educator should know!):

Get a commitment

Probe for supporting evidence

Teach general rules

Reinforce what was right

Correct mistakes

Dr. Carrie Tibbles ended the morning with a great talk on professionalism.  We talked about some of the challenges with professionalism and she shared that professionalism is medicine is about the serving the patient. She also taught us the concept of the “productive struggle” and how that is important for learning. Dr. Tibbles showed us “disciplinary” triangle starting with a “cup of coffee” and ending with a “disciplinary intervention.” There are a lot of triangles in health professions educations – you saw a few already!