Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice
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Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract · Jan 2002
ReviewAndragogy and medical education: are medical students internally motivated to learn?
Andragogy - the study of adult education - has been endorsed by many medical educators throughout North America. There remains, however, considerable controversy as to the validity and utility of adult education principles as espoused by the field's founder, Malcolm Knowles. Whatever the utility of andragogic doctrine in general education settings, there is reason to doubt its wholesale applicability to the training of medical professionals. ⋯ The validity of this hypothesis in medical education is examined, and it is demonstrated that medical students' internal and external motivation are context-dependent, not easily distinguishable, and interrelate with one another in complex ways. Furthermore, the psychological motivation for medical student learning is determined by a variety of factors that range from internal to external, unconscious to conscious, and individual to societal. The andragogic hypothesis of increased internal motivation to learn on the part of adults in general, and medical trainees in particular, is rejected as simplistic, misleading, and counterproductive to developing a greater understanding of the forces that drive medical students to learn.
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Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract · Jan 2002
Biography Historical ArticleStephen Abrahamson, PhD, ScD, educationist: a stranger in a kind of paradise.
This profile of Stephen Abrahamson, Ph. D., Sc. D., is the first of six profiles to appear as part of the Exemplar project focused of six retired medical educators who transformed the field of medical education. ⋯ Abrahamson identified three major contributions made by educationists to the field of medical education: the application of education principles to instructional/assessment innovations (e.g., programmed patients), an evidence-based approach to assessing education, and faculty development/teacher training. Based on his half-century of experience in medical education, Dr. Abrahamson outlined seven lessons for success as an educationist in medicine.