Twelve tips for medical curriculum design from a cognitive load theory perspective

Figures & data

Figure 1. A holistic model for how to integrate a competency into a medical curriculum (Leppink & Van den Heuvel 2015) applied to learning how to make a (particular type of) diagnosis: (1) simple textual diagnoses with and then without instructional support; (2) more complex textual diagnoses with and then without instructional support; (3) simple diagnoses in a simulated environment with and without instructional support; (4) more complex diagnoses in a simulated environment with and without instructional support; (5) simple diagnoses in a real patient environment; and (6) more complex diagnoses in a real patient environment.

Table

Practice points

The three sets of four tips presented in this article on how to achieve this aim can be summarized in the following three bullet points: Task fidelity: to avoid cognitive and/or emotional overload, we move up from literature through (different types of) simulated patients to real patients; starting at or moving to a higher level of fidelity should be accompanied by sufficient instructional support. Task complexity: to avoid cognitive overload, we should gradually increase learning task complexity and provide sufficient instructional support when moving to more complex tasks. Instructional support: for a given fidelity and complexity, instructional support should be faded gradually from worked examples through completion tasks to tasks performed autonomously.

Figure 2. Medical competencies and topics as paralleled cubes (Leppink & Van den Heuvel 2015) in a coherent program.

Leppink J, Van den Heuvel A. 2015. The evolution of cognitive load theory and its application to medical education. Perspect Med Educ 4:119–127

 PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar