Chip and I love this post by an ob/gyn, which is titled “Teaching medicine to residents and students.” Lots of concrete examples of good versus bad teaching techniques. In particular scroll down and read the author’s 4 different options for presenting the “differential diagnosis of amenorrhea” (from the “right way” to the “disaster”). Here’s a quote:
I refuse to introduce topics with “this disease is veeery important because it is veeery expensive and xxx billions are spent annually on blablabla….” This is such a horrible introduction. Boring. Xxx billions means nothing to me, absolutely nothing. I can’t even imagine a billion dollars, I stop thinking after 20 million, since I would retire and sail around the Caribbean if I had them. And what do the billions matter to your practice? Nothing, nada, zilch, zero. It might matter to federal policy makers. Are those people seeing your power points?
What matters to me is “what percentage of patients that walk through my office door have this” because that determines if I am going to do something about it, how seriously I am going to take it and what I am going to do…
And finally, topics should be taught in a clinically relevant way and not in a pathologically / systematic way. It is depressing when students or residents are shown long lists of differential diagnoses with weighing them according to clinical importance. It is absolutely impossible to remember the 22 causes of amenorrhea when they are presented as a long systematic list. It is an insult to the learner! Presenting a list without weighing the differential diagnoses by frequency of occurrence means that the teacher really does not care about the student and just slaps something on the slide in who-cares-what-you-can-learn-from-it style.
I just listened to the audio version of your book and reviewed it on my blog. You have written a wonderful book, and I look forward to applying it…and to following applications you cite in your blog. I work in medical communications, helping MDs and PhDs talk about their research. As you say, your material has common sense elements, but you present it in a fresh and thought-provoking way. Thanks for what you’ve done. It will be really helpful.
Thanks so much Lee — I’m glad you found the book useful!
Thank you so much for quoting me!
I think this story captures in a nutshell everything that is wrong with education at every level. Tell people why they need to know something and they will learn it faster and better. A pile of facts does not necessarily give a student the ability to derive solutions in a timely manner.
Since we’re on the topic of education…one of my favorite made to stick ideas comes from De Bono’s book, The Six Thinking Hats. A professor in my MBA program had us use it to resolve problems and reading “Made to Stick” reminded me of it’s elegant simplicity as an entire model for group problem-solving.
Put on your “thinking cap”! Remember that concept. Well instead of your thinking cap, put on a different colored hats as you work together to resolve an issue, set priorities, etc.
Yellow is for the optimist. Easy to remember because it’s sunny.
Green is for creativity, organic like the trees and the grass.
White is for objectivity - it’s color neutral.
Red is for emotion, like red hot!
Black is for realism, devil’s advocate (which a lot of us want to jump to first).
Blue is for blue sky view or 30,000 foot view. It’s for looking at the bigger picture and should come last.
I took the class in graduate school while working through my MBA many years ago; when my wife came to me with the need for a solution to help a group of 12 year-old girls resolve issues, the velcro was still holding!
Not just an idea, but a whole system!
interesting, mark — i don’t know the de bono book but it’s impressive that you recall it many years later.