Editorial. Life Sciences in an Integrated Curriculum: Starting the Conversation

Abstract

Editorial, no abstract required.Keywords: Life Sciences, Integrated Curriculum, Learning Gain, Anatomy, Genetics AimsMore than 200 articles have been published online in the new MedEdPublish journal, but we found that surprisingly few describe the learning and teaching of Life Sciences (1-7). This observation could reflect the published research within the wider medical education community. In order to enhance and expand upon the current literature in this area, the editors invite your contributions to this themed-issue. We welcome commentaries, opinions, case studies, reviews and full research papers.While there may be adequate Life Sciences teaching sessions within undergraduate medical curricula, it is important to address the nature, quality, timing and integration of their delivery. There are many discipline-specific curricula outlined within the published literature that focus on competencies and learning outcomes (8-12), but although biological sciences are a cornerstone of training, limited attention has been given to the development of evidence-based approaches for the teaching of these core sciences. Even for anatomy, a discipline that is well-represented within the educational literature, concerns over the methodological rigour of the vast majority of studies have been raised after systematic review (13). Furthermore, only a limited repertoire of the wide variety of available learning and teaching methods have been investigated in well-designed studies.In this themed-issue, we encourage the submission of articles from basic science teachers and medical educators that describe innovative and effective ways to support medical students in their study of the Life Sciences. The scope of this edition includes disciplines such as anatomy; genetics and physiology; in addition to the more applied fields, such as clinical microbiology; pharmacology; and histology (for a more comprehensive list please see the illustration in Figure 1). Figure 1 An illustration of the Life Sciences and educational topics for this themed-issue of MedEdPublish CommentaryOpen Access We propose an exploration of the following topics within Life Science education:(1) Learning Gain, Innovation and Teaching ExcellenceLife Science teaching may be more strongly associated with the didactic lecture than other strands of clinical education, where the principles of social learning have been embraced. However, in 2009 the Harvard Physicist Eric Mazur provided a reasoned argument for saying farewell to the traditional lecture as a mode of delivery for his teaching (14). He had come to his conclusions reluctantly because he enjoyed delivering his lectures and student evaluations had always been positive. However, systematic testing of the lecture against new strategies, showed that learning-gain in his students nearly tripled by using a student-centred approach coupled with interactive learning. Mazur noted that this is not only of value for the gain of conceptual knowledge but also for improving those problem-solving skills that we kno...

Concluding Commentary. Life Sciences in an Integrated Medical Curriculum: Continuing the Conversation

“…We eagerly await the outcome of this study in a future article. This was a welcome submission not only because of the innovative approach to learning and teaching that was being considered, but it was also valuable from an evidence-based practice point of view and therefore satisfied the first two themes which we outlined in our editorial (Jennings & Keenan, 2017).…”

“…Taken together, the submissions have satisfied all of the themes we proposed on our Editorial, and have started conversations surrounding 1) Learning Gain, Innovation and Teaching Excellence, 2) Research-Led Teaching and Evidence-Based Practice, 3) Integration and Creating a Community of Practice, and 4) Preparing Medical Researchers (Table 1) (Jennings & Keenan, 2017). Table 1: A summary of the disciplines and themes discussed in the papers that comprise this Life Sciences themed edition of the journal.…”