Learning and competence development via clinical cases – what elements should be investigated to best train good medical doctors?

Abstract

In European higher education, application of information technology, concentration on the learning-processes, consistent implementation, transfer learning, case-based learning, autonomous learning has been extensively studied in the last decade. Educational sciences based on neuroscientific findings use brain-based learning and teaching, including integrated thematic instructions and emotion-theory. Elements essential to this strategy, such as theory and methods for learning, competencies, attitudes, social reality, and a metadiscourse are described herein. Research on learning tends to focus on declarative knowledge, associative learning with conditional stimuli, and procedural knowledge with polythematic/crosslinking thinking. Research on competencies: In research on competencies (e.g., for clinical reasoning, decision-making), intuitive and analytical components are studied. As repeated presentation and exercising of clinical cases is crucial for an efficient learning process, the implementation of interactive scenarios including affectively involving didactics is considered. For competence-development observational methods, questionnaires/item sets or factors have to be targeted and empirically validated. Attitudes and social reality: Clinical decision-making, identification processes and attitudes (“Hidden curriculum”), as well as secondary socialization processes (integration of social norms, values, preparation of role-acquisition, occupational role) are studied via process research, conceptual research, and observational methods. With respect to social reality research, conscious and unconscious bargaining processes have to be taken into account. Methodology: Neuroscience – memory, neuronal, molecular biology, and computer science (Neurocircuits) are integrated into observational process research (e.g., affective-cognitive interface, identification processes) and conceptual research is added and studied on the meta-level, including discussion of research paradigms. This discussion provides ongoing feedback to projects in a hermeneutic circle.

Keywords: Social neuroscience; Case-based learning; Mixed-method design; Hidden curriculum; Socialization; Research

Core tip: Consequent application of evidence based didactics based on social neuroscientific findings is necessary to develop good medical doctors and therapeutic professionals. An overview of the higher education history and development throughout the past decades is given. An up to date description of the current knowledge regarding higher education and research strategies to enhance the evidence-based components to optimize teaching and learning are proposed.