Editorial: Aspiring for Excellence in Health Professions Education (HPE)

Abstract

The question is, why should we aspire for excellence in HPE? Are the current standards of medical education not par excellence? What is excellence in medical education? To understand this, we need tounderstand the historical narrative of health professions education. Flexner presented a report in 1905 which brought a 1 major change in the delivery of medical education. Before Flexner, teaching and learning were d e c e n t r a l i z e d . L e a r n i n g w a s b a s e d o n apprenticeship. Flexner report brought the centralized system of teaching in universities and hospitals. It promoted a system which was teacher centred, emphasized factual knowledge, autonomy of the disciplines and hospital based teaching. This approach was challenged, when medical
educationists presented new theories and strategies of learning. Benjamin Bloom presented the 2 3 taxonomy of cognition and attitude and Dave gave the taxonomy of psychomotor skills. In early 1986 Harden published the SPICES model of learning
4 strategy which was in total contrast to the teacher oriented strategy. In the 80's, Burrows presented the idea of problem based learning.Newer teaching methods, assessment tools and instruments have since been devised. Newer curricula have emerged.
Problem based learning, competency based curriculum, OSCE, OSLER, OSTE, miniCEx , DOPS, CBL, CBD; the list is very exhaustive.