The challenge of transfer to clinical practice: The illusion of learning and illusion of teaching

Abstract

There is increasing pressure to accelerate health professions education programs and educators have the challenge of ensuring that students can effectively transfer their learning into clinical practice. In this personal view, we discuss how insights from cognitive science can inform the redesign of current curricula and highlight the challenge of implementing these new approaches for instructional design and assessment. We also recommend that educators disseminate the important lessons learned from their endeavors.

Keywords:

• Clinical skills
• clinical practice
• cognitive science
• undergraduate training

Authors’ contributions

All authors have written, read and approved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was partially funded by FAPESP – São Paulo Research Foundation [Young Investigator Grant number 2018/15642-1]. The funder had no role in study design, data collection, and analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.

Notes on contributors

Dario Cecilio-Fernandes

Dario Cecilio-Fernandes, M.Sc, Ph.D., AFAMEE, is a researcher in the Department of Medical Psychology and Psychiatry, School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas and has a research interest in assessment, skill acquisition and clinical reasoning.

Naomi Steenhof

Naomi Steenhof, BScPhm, MSc, PhD, is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto and has a research interest in instructional design, transfer, and expertise development.

John Sandars

John Sandars, MB ChB, MSc, MD, is Professor of Medical Education in the Health Research Institute at Edge Hill University and has a research and development interest in the use of self-regulated learning theory for performance improvement of individuals.