Report of the workshop on curriculum innovation

G. Majoor (Maastricht, The Netherlands)

Introduction

The agenda for the workshop (which was attended by 30 participants) included two main items: a discussion on the project as proposed by the Reference group on Curriculum innovation and a brainstorm on future activities that might be undertaken in this area by MED-NET.

Project on an inventory of changes

With respect to the project on an inventory of changes recently introduced or soon to be implemented in the curricula of MED-NET partner schools there was in general approval of the idea. A major comment, however, pertained to the outcome of the primary inventory by the questionnaire handed out in Rotterdam (and distributed by mail to non-represented MED-NET member institutions). Rather than to use these data only as a confidential working document to the Reference group, participants suggested to make these data public as soon as possible, e.g. under the MED-NET WWW home page.

Another issue discussed at the workshop was the scope of the inventory. To avoid potential confusion and ambiguity, it was decided to restrict the inventory to changes in undergraduate medical education.

Furthermore, the participants discussed with the Reference group the criteria to be applied in the selection of some 10-15 examples of significant changes in medical education. First, it was recommended to cover all of Europe (rather than just the EU) when selecting the examples. A valuable suggestion was also to involve students in selecting candidate institutions for extensive description.

Finally, based on a provisional list of curriculum aspects potentially suited for change drawn up by the Reference group, workshop participants added several topics. This list will be condensed to a set of categories of possible changes that will be used to select examples of curriculum innovations to represent an array as wide as possible. The provisional list of categories looks as follows:

Creative responses to external circumstances
Redefined objectives
Introduction of new disciplines
New curriculum structure
Introduction of new didactic approaches
New approaches to practical (clinical) training
Introduction of new assessment formats
New approaches to quality assurance (of graduates)
New managerial approaches
New strategies for the implementation of changes
Instructive failures to change

Apart from an attempt to cover as many aspects as possible in the selection process priority should be given to those types of changes indicated most frequently by the respondents.

Future activities

In the brainstorm on future activities by the Reference group on Curriculum innovation some new ideas were generated. One suggestion was to devote a (part of a MED-NET) meeting to changes in curricula as reported on in the questionnaires. A pertinent additional suggestion was to have this meeting via satellite television in EuroTransMed. Furthermore, the Reference group was encouraged to seek funds to enable the organisation of courses on new trends in medical education.

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