Current Trends in Medical Education

Abstract

Health professions education is a dynamic process which should response positively to cater the changing needs of the healthcare and the expectations for the public. On the other hand, it should evolve with growing evidence on educational theory. Around the world, the transformation of curricula, assessment and teaching learning methods are taking place and certain trends have been emerged as a result. In the past, the focus of health professions education was to provide knowledge and skills for professional practice. Even the development of attitudes was a by-product. However, today, the focus of healthcare professions education is fostering a professional with clinical and moral reasoning skills for decision making, and intrinsic motivation for reflective practice and life-long learning. Accordingly, curricula are designed to improve students’ ability to deal with uncertainty and their intrinsic motivation. Expanding the opportunities of providing feedback to students and engagement of students in the learning process have become the primary drivers of curriculum planning. In the delivery of the curriculum, learning methods are increasingly used and teaching methods are made more student centred. Teaching and learning methods attempt to highlight the relevance of learning and, therefore, they take place in more authentic learning environments. Technology is use for many purposes including the individualization of learning to students with different learning styles. Assessments are focused on promoting higher order-thinking and not the ability to retrieve knowledge. While appreciating the importance of ‘assessment of learning’, the gap between learning and assessment has been bridged by integrating ‘assessments for learning’. Overall, ‘what professionals can do’ more than ‘what they know’ has become the emphasis of the educational process with the objective of ‘formation of professional identity’ rather than ‘producing a professional’.