Inter-blocking: Integrating a Process of Inquiry Mindset into Medical Education

Abstract

Integrating basic science knowledge with clinical skills is essential for undergraduate medical training. While there are new medical curricula aimed to seamlessly meld these two aspects of medical education, it is unclear how recent developments in cognitive psychology education, such as interleaving, may inform a process of inquiry based curriculum during the early phases of medical education. Here, I offer a hybrid combination of interleaving and blocking theories, or inter-blocking, into an innovative early medical education curriculum centered on investigation by synthesizing strands of basic sciences and clinical skills. This conceptual framework lays the platform for future evidence-based medical and science education research into how modulating different degrees of interleaving and blocking may promote self-motivation, lifelong learning, and inclusive communities of learners during the early phases of undergraduate medical education.