How do you teach the doctors of the future? Over the past few years, a team from Erasmus MC has worked hard to completely revise the medical curriculum as part of the ‘Erasmusarts 2030’ project ('arts' being the Dutch word for doctor). Introducing new teaching methods also required the teachers to gain new knowledge. Tanisha Bachasing, project manager at the Community for Learning & Innovation (CLI), had the opportunity to guide this transition alongside the Erasmus MC project team. In this article, she explains the process and the achieved results.
Innovative teaching methods
In recent years, the Erasmusarts 2030 (EA2030) project team has been working towards a new curriculum for the Medicine programme. This new curriculum was designed to respond to the changing demands of the medical profession, including developments in the healthcare landscape and the rise of new technologies. To achieve this, they introduced innovative teaching methods and forms of assessment to better prepare students for the practice of tomorrow. These are:
- Case-based Education: Students learn clinical knowledge using realistic cases, which helps them master this knowledge more quickly.
- Project-based Education: Helps students deal with large, complex health issues that have social impact.
- Formation of Identity and Professionalism: Focuses on students' personal development so that they get to know themselves in relation to the medical profession.
- Programmatic Assessment (PA): A holistic way of testing that includes assessing student performance throughout their studies.
Training teachers
Team
Such a major change in the curriculum also demanded a lot from the teachers who would be teaching it. To manage this transition, the project team enlisted the help of CLI project manager Tanisha Bachasing in June 2023. Tanisha started working within the project as sub-project leader Lecturer Professionalisation. She began by putting together a multidisciplinary team, consisting of educational consultants from Erasmus MC and Risbo. The team was completed with educational experts: teachers who are at the forefront of innovative teaching methods and who can inspire and support their colleagues to create support for the project.
Tailored training
Together with this team, Tanisha focused on teaching development on the one hand and teacher professionalisation on the other. All teachers involved in teaching in the first year of the bachelor's programme needed to be trained in the new educational methods. For some groups, this training was a priority, such as lecturers who were going to teach case-based education and the development teams themselves. Training these initial groups gave the EA2030 team input and understanding to develop a foundational module in Canvas, an e-learning platform full of practical information on the new teaching methods and context on how to teach. The module highlights the connection between the methods and explains what it means for teachers in practice. All teachers were given access to the module to become familiar with the methods.
In addition to the foundational module, several customised training courses have been developed that focus on the specific teaching methods that teachers would adopt in their classes. Examples include ‘How to develop a case?’ and ‘How to guide students during a case discussion or project?’. These training sessions are designed to delve deeper into the relevant topics.
Tanisha describes the entire professionalisation process as a ‘learning cycle with different learning interventions based on teachers’ different moments of need‘. To respond effectively to these moments of need, intervision with educational consultants also played an important role in this process.
Results and future
Tanisha will remain involved until the sub-project is transferred to the internal educational consultants for embedding and further development in December 2024. The aim from the beginning of the project was to strengthen the internal capacity of the programme so that the track can continue even without the support of the CLI and Risbo.
By the end of the trajectory (end of 2025), more than 200 teachers will have been trained to apply the new teaching methods in the first year of the bachelor's degree. Evaluation moments are planned on an ongoing basis to ensure that the project delivers the desired results. This will involve evaluation at the reaction level, learning level, and behavioural level. Combining these levels gives a broad picture of the effectiveness of the learning process and makes it clear where improvements are needed.
Start of the new curriculum
With the start of the new academic year in September, the new curriculum also began. On 30 August, this milestone was festively kicked off together with everyone who participated in the project. On 2 September, the first students in Bachelor 1 started their medical studies in the new curriculum. So far, Tanisha is receiving positive feedback from the teachers!
Want to know more about Erasmusarts2030? You can find more information and regular updates on the website (this website is in Dutch). Here you can also sign up for the EA2030 newsletter.
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