ABSTRACT
In international research on medical education the concepts of professionalism and professional development have been increasingly focused. The article problematizes and discusses these concepts in relation to the Aristotelian concepts of episteme, techne and phronesis. Phronesis as a form of knowledge is of fundamental importance regarding professionalism and professional development, and can be regarded as a response to an instrumentalist understanding of medical education. The article reports from an ongoing qualitative study following the revision of the study programme in medicine at the Medical School University of Tromsoe, The Arctic University of Norway. In the renewed programme the concept of phronesis is paid attention to, and the article discusses how phronesis is focused on different learning arenas. The data presented builds on the students’ perspectives on phronesis as a form of knowledge in medical education.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. When this paper was written the data from the fifth year had just been collected for the students following the revised programme. As the analysis of these interviews had just started, we can only present a brief and to some extent superficial impression of the students’ view on this year.