Medical teacher
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An educational game is 'an instructional method requiring the learner to participate in a competitive activity with preset rules.' A number of studies have suggested beneficial effects of educational games in medical education. ⋯ The available evidence to date neither confirm nor refute the utility of educational games as an effective teaching strategy for medical students. There is a need for additional and better-designed studies to assess the effectiveness of these games and this article will inform this research.
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Historical Article
Competency-based medical education: theory to practice.
Although competency-based medical education (CBME) has attracted renewed interest in recent years among educators and policy-makers in the health care professions, there is little agreement on many aspects of this paradigm. We convened a unique partnership - the International CBME Collaborators - to examine conceptual issues and current debates in CBME. We engaged in a multi-stage group process and held a consensus conference with the aim of reviewing the scholarly literature of competency-based medical education, identifying controversies in need of clarification, proposing definitions and concepts that could be useful to educators across many jurisdictions, and exploring future directions for this approach to preparing health professionals. ⋯ In this paradigm, competence and related terms are redefined to emphasize their multi-dimensional, dynamic, developmental, and contextual nature. CBME therefore has significant implications for the planning of medical curricula and will have an important impact in reshaping the enterprise of medical education. We elaborate on this emerging CBME approach and its related concepts, and invite medical educators everywhere to enter into further dialogue about the promise and the potential perils of competency-based medical curricula for the 21st century.
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The UK General Medical Council (GMC) in its regulatory capacity conducts formal tests of competence (TOCs) on doctors whose performance is of concern. TOCs are individually tailored to each doctor's specialty and grade. ⋯ The blueprint described was easy to construct and is easy to use. It reflects the knowledge, skills and behaviours (learning outcomes) to be assessed. It guides commissioning of test material and enables the systematic and faithful sampling of common and important problems. The principles described have potential for wider application to blueprinting in undergraduate or clinical training programmes. Such a blueprint can provide the essential link between a curriculum and its assessment system and ensure that assessment content is stable over time.
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With the introduction of Tomorrow's Doctors in 1993, medical education began the transition from a time- and process-based system to a competency-based training framework. Implementing competency-based training in postgraduate medical education poses many challenges but ultimately requires a demonstration that the learner is truly competent to progress in training or to the next phase of a professional career. Making this transition requires change at virtually all levels of postgraduate training. Key components of this change include the development of valid and reliable assessment tools such as work-based assessment using direct observation, frequent formative feedback, and learner self-directed assessment; active involvement of the learner in the educational process; and intensive faculty development that addresses curricular design and the assessment of competency.
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Reflecting trends in medical education from didactic teaching to student-centred learning, the novel approach of student-led learning was applied at the University of Queensland (UQ) School of Medicine. This article examines the benefits, risks and limitations of curriculum development led by students. ⋯ Student-led learning can be effective if given adequate support by faculty. The UQ School of Medicine's new curriculum module and collaboration with U21 promote the teaching of Global Health.