Teaching Scholars Lecture Series

Boyd Richards, Ph.D.

The Potential of Active Learning in Medical Education

Didactic presentations--such as lectures, grand rounds, and research reports--remain the mainstay of health sciences education, especially in situations involving large groups of learners.  Valued on the one hand for their efficiency and teacher-centered control, didactic presentations are also criticized for promoting passive learning and student-dependencies. Calls for active learning strategies abound and such strategies are increasingly expected by accreditation bodies. Nevertheless, alternatives requiring multiple simultaneous faculty, such as problem-based learning, are impractical in many situations, especially where faculty time for teaching has been eroded. This presentation will introduce and illustrate basic principles and strategies for increasing active learning in a lecture hall setting with large numbers of learners.  Featuring theory, hands on experience, and research results, the presentation will challenge basic assumptions about what faculty can and cannot do in a didactic presentation to promote collaborative learning, content application, and problem-solving.

Objectives for talk:

• Recognize the value of active learning strategies.

• Recognize the potential of team learning principles and methods.

• Describe types of outcomes seen to date using team learning principles in medical education.

April 6, 2004
College of Public Health, Pauly Auditorium
4:00-5:00 pm

All UAMS faculty invited
One hour CME Credit

Dr. Boyd Richards is a Professor and Director of the Office of Curriculum at Baylor College of Medicine.  Formerly, he was an Associate Professor of Medical Education at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University.  Since earning a Ph.D. from Indiana University in Instructional Systems Technology, Dr. Richards has served as a generalist medical educator for nearly 20 years.  During this time, he has worked on collaborative projects of importance to the profession: curriculum reform to promote active and student-centered learning, competency assessment, faculty development, curriculum evaluation, recognition of educational scholarship, and mission-based allocation of resources. He currently serves on the editorial board for Teaching and Learning in Medicine and as consulting editor for Educational Technology, Research and Development and Academic Medicine.   He formerly served as editor of the Performance Improvement Quarterly.

For more information, contact:

Anna S. Moses, M.Ed.
Office of Educational Development
mosesannas@uams.edu
1.501.526.4848

Diane Heestand, Ed.D.
Office of Educational Development
Heestanddianee@uams.edu
1.501.686.8346

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