Competencies: A Cure for Pre-Med Curriculum

COMMENTARY Gallery of ocean life Attributing weather for policy? LETTERS I BOOKS I POLICY FORUM I EDUCATION FORUM I PERSPECTIVES LETTERS edited by Jennifer Sills THE REPORT “COPING WITH CHAOS: HOW DISORDERED CONTEXTS PROMOTE STEREOTYPING AND discrimination” by D. A. Stapel and S. Lindenberg (1) reported the effects of the physi- cal environment on human stereotyping and discriminatory behavior. On 31 October 2011, Tilburg University held a press conference to announce interim ﬁ ndings of its investiga- tion into possible data fraud in the body of work published by Stapel. The ofﬁ cial report in Dutch (translated into English using Google software) indicates that the extent of the fraud by Stapel is substantial. Pending further details of the Tilburg Committee’s ﬁ ndings, Science is publishing this Editorial Expression of Concern to alert our readers that serious concerns have been raised about the validity of the ﬁ ndings in this Report. BRUCE ALBERTS Editor-in-Chief Reference 1. D. A. Stapel, S. Lindenberg, Science 332, 251 (2011). Published online 1 November 2011; 10.1126/science.1216027 IN 2009, THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN Medical Colleges (AAMC), in collaboration with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), reviewed the educational prereq- uisites for admission to medical school in the United States. Because a large fraction of undergraduate students enroll in science courses to meet the requirements for admis- sion to medical school, courses satisfy- ing these requirements dominate the under- graduate science curriculum. The prescribed course structure has impeded educational innovation, particularly the development of new, multidisciplinary courses. To address this situation, the AAMC- HHMI report (1) recommends that scien- tiﬁ c competencies replace speciﬁ c courses as requirements for medical school admis- sions. They recommend that students “dem- onstrate both knowledge of and ability to use basic principles of mathematics and statis- tics, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, and biology needed for the application of the sci- ences to human health and disease; demon- strate observational and analytical skills and the ability to apply those skills and principles to biological situations.” The report articu- lates eight competencies in the areas of scien- tiﬁ c knowledge and reasoning and provides learning objectives with examples in each of these areas, independent of the identity of the speciﬁ c courses taken to achieve these com- petencies. In March 2011, a committee of the AAMC released preliminary recommenda- tions (2) for changes to the Medical College Admission Test based on this report, with planned implementation in 2015. We are HHMI professors who share the goal of promoting excellence in science edu- cation through the development of novel 11 NOVEMBER 2011 WINSTON A. ANDERSON, 1 RICHARD M. AMASINO, 2 MANUEL ARES JR., 3 UTPAL BANERJEE, 4 BONNIE BARTEL, 5 VICTOR G. CORCES, 6 CATHERINE L. DRENNAN, 7 SARAH C. R. ELGIN, 8 IRVING R. EPSTEIN, 9 ELLEN FANNING, 10 LOUIS J. CREDIT: ISTOCKPHOTOS Competencies: A Cure for Pre-Med Curriculum Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on August 8, 2014 Editorial Expression of Concern approaches to science teaching, curricular design, and mentoring. We strongly endorse the recommendation for transition to a competency-based curriculum for pre- medical education. There is room for dis- cussion about which speciﬁ c competencies should be included, and there is a need to ensure that curricular changes do not dilute course content, but we foresee that this inno- vation will have a substantial positive impact toward the invigoration of undergraduate education in science, math, and engineer- ing. Speciﬁ cally, it will simplify the develop- ment and implementation of course offerings within and between traditional disciplines as well as facilitate greater curricular innovation by science departments and multidisciplinary programs. Adoption of these reforms will provide enhanced opportunities to introduce curricular innovations that match the partic- ular strengths of individual institutions and stimulate a widespread discussion of creative advancements in undergraduate education. N ow is the time for science faculty to convene to reconsider what all future scien- tists (not just medical doctors) should know and how that material should be taught in their institutions. We encourage discussions within and between science departments of curricular revisions that take advantage of this enhanced ﬂ exibility in keeping with the competencies recommended by the HHMI- AAMC report. VOL 334 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org Published by AAAS