Integrating Basic Science and Clinical Teaching Using
Problem Based Learning
IAMSE conference on Medical Science Education
Nashville, TN
June 8, 2014
Era Buck, PhD
Office of Educational Development, UTMB
José M. Barral, MD, PhD
Neuroscience and Cell Biology, UTMB
Transforming the “2 + 2 curriculum”
Year 4
Clinical
science
Year 3
Year 2
Year 1
Basic
science
Will integration be complete in the TIME curriculum?
Year 3
Clinical
science
Year 2
Year 1
Basic
science
What exactly do we mean by “integration”?
“Simply creating ‘integrated’ curricula will not automatically create cognitive
integration”*
“The term ‘integration’ refers to situations in which knowledge from different
sources connect and interrelate in a way that fosters understanding and
performance of the professional activities of medicine”*
“Integration should be understood as a cognitive function or operation that
occurs within the learner as he or she links clinical concepts with basic science”*
*Kulasegaram KM et al. “Cognition before curriculum: rethinking the integration of Basic Science and Clinical
Learning” Academic Medicine 88:1-8, 2013
Benefits of contextual and causal integration
Clinical
science
Basic
science
“Students who received causally integrated explanations of pathologies were better able to
diagnose difficult clinical cases compared with students who were taught the textbook signs
and symptoms of the pathologies”*
“…experts tend to extract this basic science knowledge when they confront difficult or
nonrutine problems.”*
*Kulasegaram KM et al. “Cognition before curriculum: rethinking the integration of Basic Science and Clinical
Learning” Academic Medicine 88:1-8, 2013
Integration can occur at three levels
Program (formal curriculum plan)
Course
Session
“If integration is understood as a cognitive process, then the integration of
specific information – via lecture slides, practice problems, evaluations and
various media (words, pictures, practical experiences, etc.) – must occur”*
“This shift requires that educators pay greater attention to organizing and
supporting session-level teaching for integration”*
Thus this workshop!
*Kulasegaram KM et al. “Cognition before curriculum: rethinking the integration of Basic Science and Clinical
Learning” Academic Medicine 88:1-8, 2013
Workshop objectives
• Create a learning activity to promote contextual integration of foundational and
clinical sciences including target learners, methods and assessment
• Create a learning activity to promote causal integration of foundational and clinical
sciences including target learners, methods and assessment
Example of completed worksheet (contextual)
Example of completed worksheet (contextual)
Example of completed worksheet (contextual)
Its about the Questions