Abstract
In healthcare education, comprehending and integrating information from socio-behavioral and economic principles can be challenging when students learn through traditional didactic instruction. They may experience difficulties applying knowledge from lectures to real-world problems and decision-making situations in their work-life or independent research projects. Active learning and innovative teaching strategies are needed to enhance students' outcomes and prepare graduates and researchers for the real world. This chapter will discuss the faculty's experience during the faculty learning community Digital Learning Initiative and the potential of developing the learning process through the use of application-based learning teaching philosophy and digital tools in optimizing the students' learning experience, developing their critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and illustrating the relevance of the classroom information to the real world.
TopIntroduction
Healthcare education, including pharmacy, involves the integration of interdisciplinary fields including socio-behavioral and economic sciences. Traditionally, students went to lectures and then transitioned into their work-life or independent research projects where they experience difficulties applying knowledge gained from didactic instruction to making clinical or analytical decisions in real-world situations (Eisenstein A., 2014). However, preparing graduates for the real-world requires that students apply knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and behaviors through active learning practices (Gleason, 2011). It is imperative that students possess lifelong learning skills in order to effectively make use of the overwhelming abundance of information that they receive during their time in healthcare education.
As a growing discipline, healthcare education is continuously evolving to actively engage students in their learning process. For instance, the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) standards stipulate that active learning strategies should be incorporated throughout the curriculum to enhance student outcomes (ACPE, 2006). In addition, the learning outcomes of the Center for the Advancement of Pharmaceutical Education (CAPE) require the integration of professional abilities with general abilities, such as critical-thinking, communication, ethical decision-making, and self-learning (Medina, 2013). Hence, adopting innovative teaching philosophies and instructional techniques, such as application-based learning (ABL), is critical in healthcare education to enhance the students’ learning process. Moreover, to attain the full potential of ABL, the use of technology and digital tools is essential for efficiently reaching the desired learning outcomes. According to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), many of today’s high-demand jobs were created in the last decade. Solving highly complex problems requires that students have both fundamental abilities, such as reading and writing, and a 21st-century skill-set including teamwork, problem-solving, research, time management, information synthesizing, critical thinking, and expertise in utilizing high-tech tools (Edutopia, 2007).
This chapter will discuss pedological principles that can optimize the students’ learning experience and develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It will also discuss how socio-behavioral and economic sciences in healthcare education could adopt the ABL teaching philosophy to facilitate the connection between the classroom information and real-world scenarios. Additionally, the authors will illustrate how insights gleaned from participation in Florida A&M University’s (FAMU’s) Digital Learning Initiative Faculty Learning Community (FLC) impacted their teaching style and course redesign. Lastly, the potential for ABL in professional healthcare education curricula such as PharmD courses will be discussed.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Problem-Based Learning (PBL): an approach in which complex real-world problems are used as the vehicle to promote student learning of concepts and principles as opposed to direct presentation of facts and concepts.
Socioeconomic Sciences: the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. In general, it analyzes how modern societies progress, stagnate, or regress because of their local or regional economy, or the global economy.
Digital Tools/Technology: are web-based platforms or applications that connect educators and students to course content and/or resources using text, images, audio, and/or video for an interactive educational experience.
Socio-Behavioral Sciences: they include disciplines that study human behavior, people’s decisions, actions, and social status to help researchers and policy makers draw conclusions and make predictions.
Application-Based Learning (ABL): an approach where students learn by applying knowledge, skills, theories, and models in active learning activities.
Critical Thinking: the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement.
Active Learning: an approach to instruction that involves actively engaging students with the course material through discussions, problem solving, case studies, role plays and other methods.