Learning science as a potential new source of understanding and improvement for continuing education and continuing professional development

Abstract

Learning science is an emerging interdisciplinary field that offers educators key insights about what happens in the brain when learning occurs. In addition to explanations about the learning process, which includes memory and involves different parts of the brain, learning science offers effective strategies to inform the planning and implementation of activities and programs in continuing education and continuing professional development. This article provides a brief description of learning, including the three key steps of encoding, consolidation and retrieval. The article also introduces four major learning-science strategies, known as distributed learning, retrieval practice, interleaving, and elaboration, which share the importance of considerable practice. Finally, the article describes how learning science aligns with the general findings from the most recent synthesis of systematic reviews about the effectiveness of continuing medical education.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Shirley Sargent for her assistance with identifying relevant studies from the continuing education/continuing professional development literature and Dr. David Price for his review and feedback on the article.

Disclosure statement

The authors reports no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Funding

No funding supported this research.

Glossary

The learning sciences: Is an interdisciplinary field that studies teaching and learning.

Sawyer RK (Ed.). The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences. (2nd Ed.). 2016. New York (NY): Cambridge University Press.

Notes on contributors

Thomas J. Van Hoof, MD, EdD, is an Associate Professor of the University of Connecticut Schools of Nursing and Medicine. He introduced the concept of this paper, conducted a literature review, and drafted the manuscript.

Terrence J. Doyle, PhD, is a Professor Emeritus of Ferris State University and CEO of Learner Centered Teaching Consultants. He provided part of the inspiration for the manuscript, augmented the literature review, and co-developed the manuscript.