The Core Curriculum and Integration in Medical Education

Abstract

Background: The current challenges that confront the medical education field have necessitated the need for transformation and revisions in curriculum design practices. In this regard, core curriculum development and integration are examples of such changes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the concepts of core curriculum and integration in the realm of medical education and to explore the relationship between these two concepts. Methods: This study is a narrative review article. In this study, databases such as Science Direct, Ovid, PubMed, SID, Magiran and Google Scholar were searched using keywords such as core curriculum, integration, medical education, curriculum design and curriculum. Results: The importance of meaningful learning, organized knowledge and practical knowledge for students of medical sciences requires planning of integrated curricula. This is more accentuated based on the increasing volume of knowledge, educational content, continuous changes in community needs, responsibility to meet those needs and the need for medical students to gain clinical competencies in their profession. Conclusion: The concepts of core curriculum and integration are very closely linked, with some of the experts in the field of curriculum planning considering integration as one of the forms of designing core curriculum. Indeed, both concepts were developed in response to the overload of knowledge, the need to teach and learn basic and clinical sciences together and the need to create meaningful learning.

Préparation à l'externat : études médicales de premier cycle à l’Université d’Ottawa

“…Le premier terme, medical education, a été utilisé afin d'avoir un aperçu du montant de littérature se trouvant sur le sujet, trouvant 41 198 articles. À la suite de l'ajout des autres mots-clés, de la filtration des articles selon leur pertinence et de la saturation des données, le nombre total d'articles utilisés était de huit (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14). Aucun article n'a été trouvé sur une approche systématique de valider un mapping de curriculum (9).…”

“…L'importance d'intégrer le raisonnement critique permet de développer les compétences de prise de conscience et de décision ainsi que d'améliorer l'inférence, l'évaluation, la résolution de problèmes, la prédiction et l'analyse des idées(8). Le curriculum intégratif, quand à lui, se veut de se baser sur des connaissances fondamentales afin de permettre une évolution alimentant le curriculum et le fragmentant pour en obtenir une meilleure compréhension(13). Pour ce faire, il s'agit d'apporter des expériences d'apprentissage pour faire des liens entre les connaissances acquises et la pertinence clinique(13).…”

Discourse through Photovoice: “Lived experience” of epilepsy

“…Lin et al (2016) suggested that teachers enable students to see and hear what happens in the interactions of patients and their family members and interpreted the training purposes: "...medical students should be encouraged to enhance their empathetic understanding of the psychosocial issues in patients and illness by becoming aware of expressing their affective experience...". Common learning experience is essential for medical students to achieve clinical competencies [5]. These educational programs help students to analyze different psychological processes and this is challenging for all participants.…”

“…Photovoice often is used to draw attention to society otherwise the following method can change opinion of the community members and environment. Yamani et al (2016) described that application of active teaching strategy, meaningful learning and integration of conceptual and practical knowledge are the core of curriculum. In this context the core curriculum is understood as a focal point for training teachers and as the basis for describing specific objectives.…”

“…Students indicated the project as an innovative teaching method, without having previous experience. Innovations at all levels of medical education allow developing a curriculum and doing revisions in medical education [5]. It is important to remember that innovations could be evolutionary and revolutionary.…”