Pediatrics & Neonatology
Volume 49, Issue 3 , Pages 53-57, June 2008

The Use of Medical Cognition in Medical Curriculum Reform in Taiwan

  • Tsuen-Chiuan Tsai

      Affiliations

    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Department of Pediatrics, Wan-Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, No. 111, Section 3, Hsing-Long Road, Taipei 116, Taiwan

Department of Pediatrics, Wan-Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

Received 18 February 2008; received in revised form 8 April 2008; accepted 25 June 2008.

Article Outline

Medical cognition studies have generated a great deal of knowledge that can be used to improve the quality of medical education. This review summarizes medical cognition research, the trends in medical education, and how the results of cognitive research can be applied to medical curriculum reform in Taiwan. The current trend in medical education is to develop a student-centered, outcome-oriented curriculum that integrates basic and clinical science, introduces students to patients at an early stage, reduces redundancy, and promotes active learning. To help students to develop and maintain their expertise in medicine, extensive supervised training with evaluation and feedback should be provided. The curriculum should also be designed to provide a learning context in which students are helped to develop a knowledge structure and diagnostic strategies similar to those used by experts. Finally, the curriculum should be flexible and responsive to the needs of students to train them to be excellent physicians in the future.

Key Words:  curriculum , medical cognition , medical problem solving , medical reasoning , reform

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PII: S1875-9572(08)60013-3

doi:10.1016/S1875-9572(08)60013-3

Pediatrics & Neonatology
Volume 49, Issue 3 , Pages 53-57, June 2008

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