Web-Based Scaffolds: The Feasibility of a Constructivist Approach to Oncology Fellow Learning

In this 2-institution feasibility pilot, oncology fellows used and updated freely available web-based learning tools (scaffolds) in a constructivist fashion.

Short-Term Training with Basic Science Research Literature Advances Medical Students' Skills for Adaptive Expertise

Physicians must adapt their learning and expertise to the rapid evolution of healthcare. To train for the innovation-efficient demands of adaptive expertise, medical students need to acquire the skill of adaptive self-regulated learning, which includes accessing, interpreting, and synthesizing emerging basic and translational research to support patient care. In response, we developed the course Medical Student Grand Rounds (MSGR). It engages all pre-clerkship students at our institution with self-regulated learning from translational basic research literature. In this report, we describe MSGR's methodology and important outcomes. Students found, interpreted, critically assessed, and presented basic research literature about self-selected clinically relevant topics. In less than one semester and mentored by basic science researchers, they completed eight milestones: (a) search research literature databases; (b) choose a clinical topic using searching skills; (c) outline the topic's background; (d) outline a presentation based on the topic's mechanistic research literature; (e) attend translational research-oriented grand rounds by faculty; (f) learn to prepare oral presentations; (g) write an abstract; and (h) present at Grand Rounds Day, emphasizing their topic's research literature. Graded milestones and end-of-course self-assessments indicated students became proficient in interpreting research articles, preparing and delivering presentations, understanding links among basic and translational research and clinical applications, and pursuing self-regulated learning. Qualitative analysis of self-assessment surveys found most students thought they progressed toward the learning objectives: find scientific information about a research topic (56% positive responses), interpret and critically assess scientific information (64%), and prepare and deliver a scientific presentation (50%). Milestones improve time management and provide a scaffolded method for presenting focused research topics. MSGR equips students with critical thinking skills for lifelong, adaptive, self-regulated learning-a foundation for adaptive expertise. The master adaptive learner cycle of planning, learning, assessing, and adjusting is a conceptual framework for understanding students' MSGR learning experiences.

Enhancing Veterinary Student Engagement in Public Health and Epidemiology Coursework through a Client-Focused Risk Communication Assignment

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the important role veterinarians play as public health communicators and emphasized the importance of engaging veterinary students in epidemiology and public health curriculum, the majority of whom have a clinical focus and struggle to see their relevance in relation to future career plans. To enhance student engagement, second-year DVM students were asked to create a one-page risk communication handout centered on a zoonotic disease and organized with public health message mapping. Informed by the distribution of students' self-declared career plans at admission to the DVM program, students were asked to choose from a list of zoonotic pathogens previously covered in the DVM curriculum and to select a relevant focus species and expected lay audience member. This assignment was scaffolded with previous infectious disease and communication coursework and provided an opportunity for all students to engage with public health material regardless of prior interest or knowledge. Students chose 13 of 15 zoonotic diseases provided, and their species and audience focuses were distributed across previously stated career focuses, including companion animals, food producing animals, exotic animals, and wildlife. Providing options relevant to diverse student experiences and connecting the assignment to clinical competencies supported student autonomy and engagement in public health content outside clinically focused core classes. Students' successful delivery of constructive peer feedback indicated their engagement with the public health course material, integration of learning from other parts of the curriculum, and perceived relevance of the assignment to their future career focus.

Scaffolded Active Learning: Nine Pedagogical Principles for Building a Modern Veterinary Curriculum

Veterinary discipline experts unfamiliar with the broader educational literature can find the adoption of an evidence-based approach to curriculum development challenging. However, greater societal and professional demands for achieving and verifying Day One knowledge and skills, together with continued progress in information generation and technology, make it all the more important that the defined period for initial professional training be well used. This article presents and discusses nine pedagogical principles that have been used in modern curricular development in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States: (1) outcomes-based curriculum design; (2) valid and reliable assessments; (3) active learning; (4) integrated knowledge for action; (5) tightly controlled core curriculum; (6) "just-in-time" rather than "just-in-case" knowledge; (7) vertical integration, the spiral curriculum, and sequential skills development; (8) learning skills support; and (9) bridges from classroom to workplace. Crucial to effective educational progress is active learning that embraces the skills required by the modern professional, made possible by tight control of curricular content. In this information age, professionals' ability to source information on a "just-in-time" basis to support high quality reasoning and decision making is far more important than the memorization of large bodies of increasingly redundant information on a "just-in-case" basis. It is important that those with responsibility for veterinary curriculum design ensure that their programs fully equip the modern veterinary professional for confident entry into the variety of roles in which society needs their skills.