Analysing the concept of context in medical education

Abstract

Background There is increasing interest in the role of context in medical education, with the conjecture that learning in a clinical context may be helpful for later recall of knowledge. Although this may be true in a general sense, at a closer look it appears that the notion of context is not well substantiated in the medical education literature and that the concept is not clearly defined. Effects of context on learning appear to depend on type of learning task, the relationship or interaction between the context and the learning material, and motivational features of the context. Context is often implicitly regarded as a uniform concept but conceptual analysis shows that a distinction can be made in several dimensions. Results In this paper, we identify 3 different dimensions of context: a physical dimension, representing the environmental characteristics; a semantic dimension, reflecting how well the context contributes to the learning task, and a commitment dimension, representing the amount of commitment (in terms of motivation and responsibility) that is generated by the context. On these dimensions, context can be ordered from reduced (providing few cues, little meaning, little commitment) to enriched (many cues, much meaning, high commitment). Conclusion This model can serve a dual purpose: first, to disentangle several aspects of educational contexts (e.g. as high in meaning but low in commitment), and second, to provide a theoretical framework to generate research on the influence of different contexts in education on students' learning.

Desafíos educativos para el profesor de medicina: evaluación de su desempeño

“…Aunque los principios de una evaluación formativa se vislumbran en la Constitución Política de 1991, en la Ley General de Educación y en los diversos decretos del Ministerio de Educación Nacional, aún se continúa manteniendo una evaluación que representa el momento final y en la que se mide el rendimiento de los evaluados como el más valioso de los indicadores de éxito; por ende, no es posible el desarrollo que profesionalice ni la mejora en la calidad docente (49,50). Como consecuencia, la evaluación se convierte en una herramienta punitiva, mercantilista, para el control, lo que suscita en los profesores desconfianza, rechazo y falta de interés para ser evaluados.…”

Towards a Sociocultural Perspective on Identity Formation in Education

“…The aim is to reduce the gap between -theory and practice‖ or basic and clinical sciences by providing students with authentic problems derived from -real‖ practice. This -same-context‖ advantage is often referred to when arguing that the PBL approach is more effective than traditional medical curricula (e.g., Koens et al, 2005). By introducing students to relevant clinical problems in small group discussions (facilitated by a tutor) the goal is to activate, elaborate, and construct students' prior knowledge, thereby shaping their cognitive behavior in a way similar to what will be expected of them as professionals.…”

Teachers’ interpretations of the concept-context approach for L1 education.

“…He believed that students learn and develop when given the freedom to experiment and develop their knowledge in a meaningful context (see for example Fottland, 2004 about Dewey). Other researchers since Dewey have worked with conceptcontext rich education, although some called it context-rich education or authentic education (for example Wierstra & Wubbels, 1994;Mayer, 1998;Nicaise, Gibney & Crane, 2000;De Bock, Verschaffel, Janssens, Van Dooren & Claes, 2003;Van den Akker, 2003;Quintana, et al, 2004;Schwarzer, 2004;Koens et al, 2005;Ainley & Patrick, 2006;Bennett & Lubben, 2006;Evelein, 2006;Brand, Reimer & Opwis, 2007;Caldwell, 2007). The approaches of these researchers have much in common, but there are differences as well.…”

“…According to him, lessons can contain more or less elements of contextrichness: for instance, by making use of newspapers or other real-life materials (contextrich), or by adhering strictly to the textbook (context-poor). Koens, Mann, Custers, and Ten Cate (2005) call this an enriched or a reduced context. Another view on conceptcontext rich education is expressed by Van Oers (1998).…”