Debunking myths in medical education: The science of refutation

Abstract

de Bruin argues that efforts to eradicate erroneous assumptions students and teachers hold about learning requires refutation, a process that combines both correct scientific knowledge and rejection of misconceptions.

Health professions education scholarship: The emergence, current status, and future of a discipline in its own right

“…Applying advanced skills training and advanced assessment techniques, deliberate practice, mastery learning, clinical reasoning tests, instruments to measure clinical learning environments, physical space for education, studies to correlate lapses in professional behavior with later adverse practice events, studies on theories of workplace learning, motivation, cognitive load in medical education, conditions for interprofessional education, studies on burn-out and depression, and many other findings or innovations that were tried on smaller scale all have improved medical training to some extent. Still other scholars, rather than presenting or trying an innovation, have helped sharpen the mind by debunking myths about medical education, [38][39][40][41] or provided major overviews of strengths and weaknesses in medical education, and urged for reform. 42,43 Medical education, and to some extent other health professions education, as we know it today would be definitely different without these advances.…”

Future steps in teaching desirably difficult learning strategies: Reflections from the study smart program.

“…Such conceptual change, however, will not be achieved simply by offering students evidence of effective strategies. To refute misinformation effectively, apprehension of misbeliefs and the correct information must be co-activated to concurrently fill the mental gap created by the correction (de Bruin, 2020; Paynter et al, 2019). It is furthermore important not only to explain that information is false but also why it is false.…”

The Once and Future Myths of Medical Education

“… 23 In this condition, biasing effects disappeared. In the Medical Education special myths issue, de Bruin 26 advocated for a similar strategy: juxtaposing the incorrect myth with the correct scientific fact. A similar strategy has been used by Mamede et al 27 in their “Reflection” intervention with clinicians working up clinical cases.…”