Effective Strategies for Teaching 21st Century Skills

Abstract

In the era of the Information Age, education in the 21st century needs to move beyond mastery of content knowledge to learning skills that are important to succeed in today’s rapidly changing world. Medical education is no exception as the practice of medicine is quickly transitioning to the age of artificial intelligence. To be effective in this environment, physicians need to have skills in areas such as critical thinking, information literacy, communication and teamwork. These skills are essential to achieve mastery of machines to support patient care while maintaining mastery of compassionate care, the latter being something that cannot be replaced by machines. The question for educators today is: How to teach these skills effectively to ensure learners are achieving mastery? This is the question that I will try to answer in this presentation through my experience in teaching and research as a medical educator. Using the example of teaching communication skills in clinical practice, I will illustrate how deliberate practice and experiential learning can be combined as learner-centered pedagogical strategies to enable learners to excel in performing complex skills. I will also share on how technology enhanced learning can be judiciously incorporated to facilitate skills learning while overcoming the challenges of a large and diverse student body and maximizing efficient use of instructors’ time.