Clinical Pharmacology & Biopharmaceutics
Open Access

Abstract

Recent changes and challenges that have been faced in health system and higher education have ended by the emerging of ?outcome-based? and ?process-oriented? educational approaches. During this period, both in health and education, ?individual differences?, ?contextuality? and ?complexity? have also come into prominence as three significant concepts. Regarding the outcome-based education, learning and assessment activities are developed and implemented to gain predetermined competencies. When we consider ?process-oriented approach?, we need to put the ongoing development by means of reflective practice and thinking (reflection on/in) to the center of the learning process. In this context, learning and assessment in the clinical settings are mainly regarded as reflective and transcative processes, and a number of recently developed methods are used, such as work-based learning and assessment methods, reflection sessions and critical incidents sessions. In the reflective and transactive learning, two main steps, (1) doing/experiencing not only by knowing, but also by sensing the professional/ethical values, and (2) reflection on the experience, continue on a circular manner by enriching one another. In order to construct such a learning environment, following three fundamental conditions must be guaranteed: (a) creating the optimal emotional and social climate (a challenging, but non-threatening, and confirmative learning environment with complex social interactions); (b) offering optimal learning opportunities to the learners by providing complex, realistic experience with reflection on it and presenting graded support and guidance; (c) creating optimal ways for continuous active processing of ongoing changes and experiences to construct, elaborate and consolidate ?mental models/patterns?.

Biography

Mehmet Ali Gulpınar is an associate Professor of Medical Education and the Vice Dean for undergraduate and postgraduate education at the Marmara University School of Medicine. He received his MD in 1996 and completed his residency training in physiology in 2001 at the Marmara University. He also completed his Ph.D. training in Curriculum Design and Instruction Program at Yıldız Technical University Social Sciences Institute in 2007. His major fields of study are professionalism and learning theory , including learning and teaching from the neuroscience perspective.