Looking forward – looking back: aspects of the contemporary debate about teaching and learning medicine

Abstract

Does the tired oppositional debate between student-centredness and teacher-centredness leave the patient stranded, where the patient is surely the focus of a medical education? How might an authentic patient-centred practice be shaped, informed and nourished theoretically? We describe an intellectual landscape of critical, interdisciplinary inquiry that, so far, many medical educators have not inhabited. For example, texts written to inform medical education rarely examine intellectual premises and ideological implications. We offer a number of theoretical frameworks that can inform critical practice, asking ‘why do we do it this way?’; ‘what are the alternatives?’; and ‘how do we justify our approaches intellectually?’ We conclude that medical education needs to take stock of its intellectual resources.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alan Bleakley

Dr ALAN BLEAKLEY is Reader in Clinical Education, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, where he heads clinical education research in the Institute of Clinical Education. He is currently writing a book with John Bligh reconceptualising medical education for the 21st century.

John Bligh

Professor JOHN BLIGH is Vice Dean (Education) for the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, and Director of the Institute of Clinical Education, where he is promoting a programme to align leading edge theory with sound practice in medical education.