Educational theories' application to teaching EBM

Credit: Duncan Dixon for Dean Giustini Are you interested in contributing to HLWIKI International – hlwiki.ca? contact: dean.giustini@ubc.ca To browse other articles on a range of HSL topics, see the A-Z index. Last Update 1 March 2013 Introduction See also Evidence-based health care | Evidence-based practice workshops | Systematic review searching This page is a list of research questions that pertain to the application of education theories to teaching EBM Clinical question(s) Given the barriers to knowledge transfer of the best evidence in medicine, do educational theories play a role in facilitating the teaching of evidence-based medicine (EBM)? What major educational theories have been evaluated for use in teaching EBM principles in the undergrad years, post-grad to professional practice? What can reasonably be expected of learning theories as they apply to EBM teaching? Which learning theories have some potential application to inform future, efficient means of EBM teaching? Perhaps the reasons as to why learning theories appear not to have served EBM well should be part of the research conducted (if indeed that is the case). Are EBM teachers required to understand learning theory to be good teachers? Observations there seems to be a paucity of discourse and research regarding educational theories' application to EBM; what are the reasons for this? (Medicine seems to rely mostly on mentored values and students are generally encouraged to adopt philosophical orientations to learning how to practice.) significant amounts of time are spent teaching in medicine; physicians are content experts with little background in learning theory (itself not mentioned as a barrier); residents say they recognize the importance of their teaching (and interactions with medical students), but do not feel well prepared to do it effectively; medical students report that much of their clinical learning is experiential, and takes place in situ during interactions with attending and chief residents, and expert clinicians; zone of proximal development; is this area of medical education under-researched? (Literature suggests, yes.) problem-based learning (PBL) has much in common with EBM; yet, "intransigent patriarchies" translate into an emphasis on behaviourist and "sage on the stage" techniques; residents and clinicians from around the world attend "How to Teach Evidence-Based Practice" at McMaster University, arguably the birthplace of EBM - to learn how to teach; teaching at McMaster is not evidence-based (ie. no rigorous assessment/evaluation of teaching methods seems to be systematically undertaken); little discourse about pedagogical (or, androgogical) methods as a means to inform teaching; EBM basics are the focus at the University of Alberta's "Putting Evidence into Practice" Conference (no teaching component); effective teaching at McMaster is described as an iterative process, akin to "practicing"; while that may be true, is this an efficient means to learn how to teach? socio-cultural or situated learning theories seem especially relevant to EBM; in hospital environments, the model is reminiscent of Lave and Wenger's "community of practice"; the social and cognitive experience of EBM is situated; for example, there is explicit use of mentoring techniques, and cognitive apprenticeship, facilitated by experts; Information retrieval cumulating the best evidence is critical to EBM; there are some information retrieval experts (librarians and clinicians) who suggest that EBM should shift its attention toward knowledge management, using innovative methods of searching point-of-care decision-making tools, and electronic alerting techniques in Web 2.0. my interest lies in using adult learning theories to transmit essential EBM search skills to clinicians; my research would focus on what theories would be most suitable to impart these information technology skills to clinicians; and, the major contexts for teaching. 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Teaching and Learning in Medical Education: How Theory Can Inform Practice. http://www.asme.org.uk/pub_ume.htm UBC Department of Educational Studies – Dr. Dan Pratt