She is also a visiting professor in the Department of Health Informatics at UT-Houston s School of Allied Health Sciences. Learning during professional education is not just a matter of accumulating knowledge, but of learning to organize and evaluate information, she said. For example, a first-year medical student faced with a clinical case may be overwhelmed by massive amounts of information about the patient, she said. The student recognizes information similar to seeing a pinball machine that lights up at various points with a simple touch and with a focus that bounces from place to place because of the inability to separate the relevant information from the irrelevant. Something happens in the developmental process that allows the student to learn to discriminate, Patel said.
Students develop reasoning strategies to cope with their knowledge.
The challenge to teachers is to find the kinds of curricular formats that foster development of adequate reasoning strategies to cope with their newly acquired information. In her presentation, Gwen Sherwood, Ph.D., emphasized using a variety of approaches to create the teachable moment. Now associate dean for community and educational outreach at the School of Nursing, she said teachers should recognize that students preferred learning styles may differ. Although the practice of healthcare professions demands logical ways of thinking, a dose of imagination can help teachers capture the students attention and clarify course content. For many of us, Sherwood said, the most rewarding experience in academia is when we feel really connected with our students so our students feel connected to knowledge.