Looking forward by Pim Teunissen
Dear Cees, taking your reflection as a starting point to look forward I recognize that we can built on important developments in health professions education. It is exciting to see innovative curricula in undergraduate and postgraduate education incorporate new insights in learning and assessment. What is clear is that progress comes in many forms and travels at different speeds.
Around the world, health profession educators and learners have adopted and adapted various aspects of the different frameworks that you briefly outlined. Although similar terms are often used, the diversity in how educational programs translate ideas to concrete teaching and learning activities is enormous. To a certain extent, I think this diversity is something to cherish; it can be seen as a manifestation of how educators create programs that are attuned to the specific needs of their learners and the society in which they operate. Yet, behind some of this diversity lies an inability or unwillingness to shift to a new way of thinking, a desire to keep things as they are.
For all of these reasons, this diversity offers wonderful research opportunities to further our knowledge and aid future development. One exciting challenge that I foresee for health professions education in years to come is to find a shared language to study this diversity. Scholars need to have a common understanding when describing, for instance, groups of people who participate in a study (e.g. who are these faculty members?), concepts that they study (e.g. what characterizes communities of learners?), teaching and assessment methods (e.g. what does it mean when learners use a portfolio in support of their learning?), and relevant outcomes (how do we operationalize professional identity development?). Plenty to do, onwards and upwards!
Pim Teunissen
Once again thank you to our former SHE Director Cees van der Vleuten, his insights and most importantly all his dedicated work and passion in making education in the health science domain better. Thank you Cees also for remaining part of SHE for another while.