We will explain the first two steps of Kern's approach to curricular development and describe strategies for completing a problem identification, general needs assessment, & targeted needs assessment.
Curricular development has 6 steps.
Check out the image below for a visual summary of these steps & how they connect in the process of curriculum development.
Of Kern’s 6 Steps for curricular development, we’ll focus on #1 & 2 today.
Since problem identification & general needs assessment each deserve attention, we’ve split step 1 into two parts - see the image for details!
Let’s start w/ the problem identification.
The goal is to identify a healthcare related problem that has an impact on society.
Starting at the societal level helps us ensure we select a relevant problem. From there, we can work to understand the factors that contribute to it.
Once we have a relevant & well-defined problem, a general needs assessment (GNA) helps us understand where the gaps are.
GNA can focus on education or be more comprehensive (what are patients, healthcare providers, society doing?). For this #MEM, we focused on education!
Now, you’re ready to determine your project type. We made an algorithm to help, #MedTwitter!
What was the result of your last problem ID & general needs assessment? Reply below!
It can feel deflating as an education scholar to find yourself at outcome 1.
However, this is also a great opportunity to build an interprofessional team for your education project!
Reaching across boundaries and working with clinical or social science researchers to understand the problem can catalyze rich collaboration in health professions education.
After your general needs assessment, you can start to focus on the specific learners you’ll work with in your targeted needs assessment.
We will define CLT & its 3 subtypes, relate CLT to ideas like stereotype threat & decision fatigue, and discuss teaching strategies that can help you optimize cognitive load for your learners.
Let’s get started!
Let’s start with a discussion of how memory works. There’s three components to memory: sensory memory, working memory, and long term memory. Longterm memory is limitless, but working memory is not.
Schemas help overcome the limits of working memory.