TOPIC: An overview of education theory applied to health professional education.

LEARNING TASK: Drawing on readings and your experience, reflect on the relevance of these theories to your teaching practice and how you apply any or all to your teaching practice.

There are 2 core readings for the second week:

1. Kaufman, D.M. (2003) ABC of teaching and learning in medicine: Applying educational theory in practice. BMJ (326), 213-216
2. Bleakley, A. (2006) Broadening conceptions of learning in medical education: the message from teamworking. Medical Education, 40, 150 -157

Kaufman (2003) gives a straight forward description of a few theories, and some would argue, rather some principles of learning applied to health professional education.

Bleakley (2006) critiques some of the above theories and leads into communities of practice, experiential learning, reflective practice (week 3) and social learning theories (week 4). Bleakly’s critique demonstrates how theories could be critiqued and allows you to view any theory critically. Critique does not imply that you discard the theory as there is use and validity of each theory depending on the context and purpose of your teaching.

Raise any words, terms you are not sure of, especially education jargon. If you do not know it, most likely there are others who do not know it either.