Awesome Things: #2 when you run around the house and grab a tissue...

Awesome Things: #2 when you run around the house and grab a tissue...: "#2 when you run around the house and grab a tissue at the last second it makes you feel funny"

Prague 2008

Hi everybody!!!
I would like to know who will be there in Prague next August/September (AMEE)?
I will, and I hope to see you!!!
kisses
Sheila Torres Nunes

from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

student / teacher ratio in medical education

Dear friends,

In Turkey there is growing debate between Universities and Ministry of Health on student / teacher ratio and Medical School's student intakes capacities... We are feeling a heavy pressure to increase intake.. For instance my faculty get 300 students per year and staff number is 450.. Staff is required to use 1/3 their time for undergradute and postgraduate teaching and should spend rest for services and research... Due to local circumstances this is not reality especially for clinical deptartments ( we estimated more than a half workint hours they spend for service)..

I have done a simple search in literature (pubmed,ISI, eric, google scholar)..There is few article on topic and mostly generic or policy discussions...

Do you have any published or unpublished data, fact sheets, formulas, ideas, country reports, etc regarding the issue?

Thank you very much for your sharing in advance
H.İbrahim Durak
MHPE 2004

Happy new year....

Dear friends...

I do hope all you are fine and doing fine... I wish a happy, healthy, wealthy and peacefull new year for you all... Let's make this platform working and useful...

Greetings from Turkey
H.İbrahim Durak / Class 2003

PBL

Should we leave the “empty glass” of PBL behind in medical education?

In the May 2007 issue of Academic Medicine, a paper was published written by Dr. Shanley, a professor of pathology from the State University of New York, in which a plea was made to leave problem-based learning (PBL) behind us. The main arguments given were that small groups don’t work, that the facilitator role is a misuse of faculty and that PBL results in an impoverished educational experience for students. A plea was made to introduce a new model called case study in which students first read published cases from the medical literature that are subsequently discussed in large groups led by faculty experts.

I was struck by this paper for several reasons. First of all, because of the way in which the paper is structured. The paper first demonstrates that PBL does not work and subsequently a new model is proposed that is assumed to be better than PBL. In my opinion there is no one right educational strategy in medical education. Although I am a strong advocate of PBL, I do not think that PBL is the only best solution. Mixed strategies should be promoted in medical education and discussing cases by faculty experts should be promoted as well. Second, I agree with the author that problem solving is not the ultimate goal of education but meaningful engagement in discussions. I also agree with the author that students’ self-teaching without providing any structure to undergraduate medical students is inappropriate. But, PBL can not be defined as unguided instruction or self-teaching by students without any structure, as suggested in this paper. Furthermore, I fully disagree with the authors on the arguments that small groups lead to a general low level of discourse. In a paper in ASHE (2006, 11, 321-336) the findings of several studies are reported indicating that high quality interactions take place in tutorial groups. And of course, in this paper several studies are described as well in which problems, like unequal participation and groups just scratching the surface, are reported. But, unequal participation does probably play an even bigger role in the large group setting as proposed by Dr. Shanley and the level of discourse will also differ in large groups led by faculty experts as is the case in PBL tutorial groups. Furthermore, I disagree with Dr. Shanley that content expertise among tutors in PBL is the exception rather than the rule. Since research has demonstrated that tutors should be both experts in the subject matter under discussion and experts in facilitating learning, most medical schools do not hire a team of psychologist to monitor tutorial groups as suggested, but carefully select staff members based on their expertise.

Finally, the two viewpoints that the glass of PBL is half empty or half full, should not only be dependent on a too optimistic mood of the advocates of PBL or a too pessimistic mood of the proponents of PBL, but on scientific evidence. From this perspective PBL as well as other educational formats require more in-depth studies that need a critical analysis, preferably based on a balanced discussion instead of a black and white discussion.

Perhaps other people interested in PBL have read this paper and would like to give their opinion as well on this paper.

Diana Dolmans PhD, Educationalist, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, August 2007

How to add your personal profile on the weblog

Dear Jamiu,
It is possible to share your profile with all other alumni on the weblog. You can do this after you have logged into the blog. There you can see on your right "Edit Profile". Here you can add your personal biography (personal data, interests, photograph, etc). You can see the biography of other blog members on the bottom of the weblog homepage at "Weblog contributors" by clicking on their names. I hope this information is helpfull for you. Kind regards.

Register

This is a great initiative! I experience however that it is quite unpersonal reading comments of fellow allumni without being able to place a face or have an impression of the individual(s)....
bearing in mind that a lot of people have passed through this program since its inception in 1992.

Wouldn't it be a great idea to have a register on site where interested allumni can fill in a brief personal biography including their, profession, country, graduation year, current appointment/positon, (current) location (with or without pics)?

Regards,

Jamiu

GREAT IDEA

Thanks to the SHE for this great blog that can connect the world under the umbrella of Health Professions Education.

I hope we shall share alot through this

Great Idea - I hope it works out!

Best wishes to all

Dason

Greetings Everyone!

Hi!

It's great to have a place where all the alumni can 'congregate' and 'catch up'. I hope that this blog will provide a platform on which we can share our thoughts, ideas, encouragement, etc. about medical education...

Warm regards,

Carol Nyambura
Kenya

how to know

Hi everybody, I would like to know if is possible to show us who accept the invitation to contribute with this blog.
Thank's
Sheila Torres Nunes
from Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Welcome to the SHE alumni weblog

Welcome to the weblog for the alumni of the Maastricht School of Health Professions Education (SHE). With this weblog we encourage our alumni to share news and interesting material by posting messages or to comment in reaction to what other alumni have written. All alumni of the School of Health Professions have received an invitation e-mail to become a member of this weblog and instructions on how to activate their account. For more information on how to use and how to activate your account for the weblog, click here. We wish you a lot of fun with this new SHE weblog!
Best wishes,
Cees van der Vleuten /Jan van Dalen / Diana Dolmans