The New Pedagogy-In the Beginning

Hi, it's Sunday, October 23, 2005, and this is the first podcast in the series called

The New Pedagogy. My name is Ted Wendell, and this site is about new pedagogies that can be used

in the education of health professionals. The site supports a blog that's located at

www.newpedagogy.blogspot.com. I encourage you to go to that site and to post your

comments.

Each week or each couple of weeks, we'll put out a new podcast, and the show notes for each of those

podcasts will be on that blogging site.

Let me begin by telling you why I started this podcast. As an educator, it's my statement of

purpose or mission, and it's to improve medical and health professions education by promoting

dialogue concerning what works and doesn't work in educating health professionals. More

specifically, I want to stimulate discussions about changes in the understanding of how people

learn and how it impacts health professions education. And secondly, I want to begin a

dialogue concerning innovations in health professions education, things that people

have tried, listeners have tried, that they've found to be successful.

And then I want to highlight some new and evolving technologies and speculate on how they may be

effectively used to improve health professions education. And finally, I want to review some

recent publications that form the basis for best evidence medical education. Each week, we will

discuss a series, at least one article or a series of articles, and the scientific proof that those

articles provide is the evidence that is provided in those articles concerning their efficacy in health

professions education.

Let me offer some insight into my bias as I start this. I believe that health professions education hasn't

changed much in over a century since the Flexner Report. Basically, medical education is the

foundation for most forms of health professions education. It is the same as it was in 1910,

after the publication of the Flexner Report, and it involves two years of, or more, of students sitting in a

classroom being lectured to by experts in a field, and then a period of about two years where students are out in a

clinical setting. My concern for that is that it seems to be in sharp contrast to what we know about how people

learn.

Over the next few weeks, we'll talk about findings in the cognitive sciences

that speak to adult education, that speak to context of learning, and that speak to the efficacy of lectures

relative to a profession like medicine and the clinical practice of medicine.

I intend to provide a podcast once every two weeks, paid on a weekly basis.

weeks and we'll talk a little later about the schedule and when I'll be

publishing them but each podcast will have three distinct sections actually

four distinct sections the first will be introduction and comments about any

recent news or recent events in education that I think need to be

highlighted or discussed I'll take those from the media as well as publications

that I review on a regular basis we'll find a publication of the week and I

will post that on the blog site I'll post a reference to that I won't violate

anybody's copyright but I will post a reference to the publication of the week

and some specific comments about the findings in that publication that I'll

be discussing on the podcast I will offer a section called technology tips

being a bit of a geek I like to play with those

microchips and those toys that everybody has and loves and I'll try to

provide some comments on how these technological advances are relevant to

use in the classroom how I see that they might be used and then I'll look for any

publications or any evidence that they can be used effectively in the classroom

the final section will be comments from the blog each week before the show I'll

review

the comments that have been posted on the blog once again that's www.newpedagogy.blogspot.com

I encourage you to post your comments in any of the sections that are on the

blog I'll review those and I will make comments about the postings both

positive and negative

finally for this show I intend to publish these podcasts once every two

weeks

I plan to do that on Sunday afternoon I'll post them so that they're available

on Sunday evening so that you can you know download them and listen to them on

your way to work on Monday morning I encourage you to post your comments on

the blog by Saturday afternoon that'll give me some time on Sunday mornings to

actually sit down and review the blog postings so that I can include them on

the show I will keep each of these podcasts to between 10 and 15 minutes

because it's my experience that it's a little bit difficult to listen to anybody just talk for more than 10 or 15 minutes.

I'd like to stimulate discussion.

I think that discussion will occur on the blog.

I encourage you to post as much as you want on the blog.

And then I'll try to synopsize the postings in a succinct way on the show.

That'll do it for this first podcast of Sunday, October 23rd.

And I look forward to communicating with you again in two weeks.

Good night and have a great week.

Good night.