It's not always clear how to do that though. What can people do to increase the kinds of activities that lead to better learning outcomes? We can look to some of the work being done that looks at learning in other disciplines. I've been very excited by some of the work that's being done in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teaching. There have been a lot of recent developments in STEM teaching, based on what we know about the science of learning.
I recently came across an excellent review from the Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology (2009, W.B.Wood, Innovations in teaching undergraduate biology and why we need them. Ann, Rev. Cell Dev. Biol., 25:93-112). This article very nicely lays out the argument for better teaching methods, and gives some very practical advice on how to implement them.
Some Key points are:
Recent research in educational psychology, cognitive science, and neurobiology has yielded important new insights into how people learn and the optimal conditions for learning.
Discipline-based educational research (DBER) has led to the development of teaching approaches based on these insights (promising practices) and has provided extensive evidence that these approaches can be substantially more effective than traditional lecturing even in large classes.
These promising practices vary in their ease of implementation but even their partial adoption can lead to significant gains in student learning.
The recommendations would work well for teaching in many different settings, including continuing medical education. Teaching recommendations include:
Effective instruction must build on students’ prior knowledge (which may include misconceptions that require correction).
Instructors should be aware of the student diversity in their classrooms and use a variety of teaching modes to optimize learning for all students.
Classes should include frequent formative assessment to provide feedback to both instructors and students.
Students should be encouraged to examine and monitor their own understanding of new concepts, for example, by explaining these concepts to their peers.
Students should be encouraged to work cooperatively and collaboratively in small groups.
In order to bring about the neurological changes that constitute learning, students should spend time actively engaged with the subject matter, for example, discussing, diagramming, solving problems, working on a research project, etc., in addition to or in place of listening passively to a lecture, reading the textbook, or consulting Web sites.
This paper is highly recommended for anyone trying to learn more about how learning science is being applied today.
