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U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh |
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U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh |
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Relevance is the filter for medical contentAs a clinician-educator in the
School of Medicine, John Kreit capitalizes on an
Kreit teaches his specialty, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, to both second and fourth-year medical students, but always finds it imperative that “everything they learn here will be directly relevant when they, themselves, start taking care of patients. If I can make it relevant for them as future physicians, they learn better.
Even in the first two years, when students don’t know what’s important to learn and could find themselves memorizing a lot of information, I try to distill the knowledge to the essential elements they will need when they are diagnosing patients on the wards.”
This, he points out, contributes to a “pure” form of student motivation to “learn for learning’s sake” that already exists since medical school grades are limited to ‘pass, fail, or honors.’” Kreit believes that one of his most important functions in the intensive pre-clinical second-year course is to strategically organize material so that students can cultivate and augment their experience and knowledge from the course. This strategic organization consists of students first learning about lung physiology, then learning about what goes wrong with diseased lungs (pathophysiology), and finally learning about specific diseases of the lungs. Another strategy Kreit employs is to attend the lectures given by other faculty. This enables him to determine “what’s going well or poorly, and to see if there are any holes in the content. My presence at all times and attention to student feedback at the end of the course lets students know that we value effective instruction. As a result, the course has improved each year and fewer changes are necessary as time goes by.” He has little choice in the pre-clinical classes except to use a lecture format—supplemented by props in the form of equipment, or even a patient—to teach the voluminous information required for these second-year students. However, the reinforcement and learning that occur through students’ independent research and discussion in small groups also are critical. In small group sessions, students teach one another what they have learned in assigned independent research, with faculty present to clarify only if necessary. “Students learn early in their medical school careers how to find answers using the medical literature. This gets them into the habit of self-directed learning; thus, they become more self-sufficient and inquisitive students.” Clinical ICU rounds with fellows, residents, interns, and fourth-year students provide for spontaneous, real-world application of their knowledge. However, these rounds also present a challenge because of the different levels of students who “are together but separated by a tremendous disparity in knowledge base.” Rounds call for Kreit to think on his feet, assessing the diagnosis and treatment of each patient while using the particular case to teach at several different levels simultaneously. Frequently conducting “mini-lectures” on topics based on that particular case, “I have to mix the complexity of what I’m talking about. It’s challenging to teach on different levels while overseeing patient treatment, but this is important because students learn by doing. It’s a lot easier for them to retain and apply knowledge when they have seen a patient with a particular disease, rather than just reading from a textbook.” As Kreit explains his responsibilities—taking care of patients, teaching
in classrooms and on wards, writing textbook chapters and journal articles,
and performing administrative duties—he dismisses any suspicion that
he might long for the private practice he left to come to Pitt 12 years
ago: “It’s a lot of fun to have so many different things going on at
once; but, most important, I like to teach more than anything else I
do.” | |||||||||||||||
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A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh |
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for Instructional Development & Distance Education |
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intrinsically
“relevant” venue for engaging students. Whether he is lecturing to a
large class, facilitating small-group workshops, or directing “rounds”
in the medical intensive care unit of UPMC-Montefiore Hospital, Kreit
realizes that live patients dramatize for his students the importance
of what they are learning.