In the absence of being in class last week I was looking for
direction to write up my blog and received it from the feedback from Jules and
the blogs posted this week; hence the late post. I have evidence from the blogs
to infer that one of the topics I missed last class was the hidden curriculum;
which, ironically was what I wanted to hear about the most.
So I went
about researching hidden curriculum in medical education. I hit a very interesting
article by B. Michalec describing how the curriculum had changed over the years
to incorporate the hidden curriculum. What I found most fascinating is how a
gap is built between the medical student and practitioners’ population with the
rest of the population. The hidden curriculum is meant to bridge this gap. The
author based the observation on interviews conducted with 1st and 2nd
year medical students. This gap as
suggested by the author is brought about by developing the medical expertise
and knowledge. The students repeatedly get
primed by medical educators that they are an elite group and the language and
culture is different within. The author continues to comment on how hidden
personal, cultural and gender clashes aired by the educator are carefully
viewed and teased before the opinions are accepted or thrashed by the students.
This takes me back to the question of how much of the hidden curriculum are we
as educators practicing and internalizing before we expect the students to?
In my last
blog I did touch on how the competencies are applicable even to me as an
educator. I feel the need to develop these aspects as a teacher before teaching
the philosophies to the students. I definitely
have an apprenticeship and developmental model when it comes to my teaching
philosophy. Hidden curriculum are learning outcomes that are not explicit buy
implied?..thanks Jules. Key features of the hidden curriculum in medical
education are incorporating all the competencies associated with training to be
holistic medical practitioners. These
competencies should potentially bridge the gap between the medical professional
and the patient. For example: strong communication skills talk about being able
to explain a medical condition at the level of grade 5. So when students
prepare presentations that is one of the expectations of the language to be
used to avoid medical jargon. Collaboration with other professionals gives a
chance for students to understand the scope of other professionals they work
with so that common goal of patient care is achieve efficiently. Professionalism
however is not a simple word and has to be understood as suggested by Hodge;
but, determined by personal, interpersonal and societal values. Considering all
three domain are in flux assessment of professionalism needs to be multidimensional.
The
questions I wish to continue with are how do my personal ethical practices
influence the internalization of the competencies? How best can I walk the
talk? I am challenging myself to be the educator that can explicitly and
implicitly integrate the competencies expected to my students within the walls
of the anatomy teaching modules.
1.
The pursuit
of medical knowledge and the potential consequences of the hidden curriculum; Barret
Michalec; University of Delaware, USA. Health;16(3) 267–281,© The Author(s)
2011,Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav; DOI:
10.1177/1363459311403951.
2.
Assessment
of professionalism: Recommendations from the Ottawa 2010.Conference; BRIAN
DAVID HODGES et.al.
Hi Anna,
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read your blog, I just sat with it and thought it was a nice pleasant read. And then I wondered what I might contribute to it. Here's the part that hit me. The questions you pose: How best can I walk the talk? I am challenging myself to be the educator that can explicitly and implicitly integrate the competencies expected to my students within the walls of the anatomy teaching modules?
First I thought it was a nice piece of reflection on action, almost with a hint of uncertainty. Is this possible, kind of thing. But then I wondered about degrees. Does it have to be all or nothing? Can you challenge yourself more or less in some competencies than others? Do some require more and others less, consistent with your own values?
Beth
Anna,
ReplyDeleteThe expectation not to use medical jargon seems like an appropriate hidden curriculum item. I thought about whether this could be incorporated as a learning outcome, and came up with values relating to respecting the client, or something similar. But it isn't like you'd give them a test to determine if they could express medical terms in layperson language!
By walking the talk/walk I really feel that you are discussing modeling behaviour. And I agree with Beth that it is something we should all be thinking of, or keeping in the backs of our minds.
Some interesting reflective wander here. I was thinking, as I read, about the assumptions that we bring to this matter of the hidden curriculum (all of us, not just you!), and the questions that could either expose those assumptions or be generated by them. How much of the hidden curriculum, for instance, should remain hidden? How much should be brought into the open and made explicit? To what extent is the hidden curriculum influenced by us as individual teachers, by our departments and institutions and professions/disciplines, by our students?
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe the one most pressing to me of all: Should there be a hidden curriculum at all? If not, then we would have a responsibility to ferret out the hidden curricula that influence I work and either destroy those elements or make them part of our explicit curricula. I wonder whether this is the best approach -- or whether it's even feasible.
It seems to me that once we USE the hidden curriculum to bridge a gap, as suggested in the source you mentioned, it ceases to be hidden to us. Does it also cease to be hidden to students?