Psychologists and educators have been perplexed for generations trying to understand how people learn, and how best to optimize the process. While many still ascribe to tried and true notions of classroom didactics and late nights at the library, others have started to adopt more innovative methods, capitalizing on technology, the reinforcement properties of active as opposed to passive learning, and other methods of engaging students and trainees.
In truth, however, it is likely that we are all individuals and do not all learn exactly the same way ( ). Most of us who have experienced extensive higher education will have come across people who claim they are better auditory learners, visual learners, kinesthetic learners, and the like. While some critics question the value of dividing individuals into different learning style categories ( ), these notions persist and many ascribe to them.
As a career changer with multiple advanced degrees (medicine, law, and business), I have had the privilege of seeing firsthand how other professions train their members. Prior to attending law school, I vividly recall watching the movie The Paper Chase with a sense of impending doom as Professor Kingsfield grilled a young Harvard law student using “the Socratic Method” until poor Mr. Hart lost his lunch ( ). And yet in my subsequent personal experience, the often maligned Socratic Method proved to be more effective than terrifying in practice, as it forced you to be prepared and to really think about the nuances of what you were learning, as you could expect to be challenged on aspects of the topic in front of an audience. You were taught to “think like a lawyer” because you had to not only know the facts of a case but also be able to effectively defend them. The premise was that if you could defend a concept in front of a lecture hall full of your peers, while a skilled professor actively tried to poke holes in your logic, you really understood what you were talking about; by contrast, if you knew the material only superficially, you would find yourself taking your lumps and preparing harder for the next such encounter.
Business school by contrast focused on group learning and team building, and I spent far more time putting together Excel spreadsheet models and PowerPoint presentations with my teammates than I did with my head in a book. In medical school, active learning became the rule, with lots of margin notes, highlighting, mnemonics, and flashcards; some medical school programs at the time were even rolling out “problem based learning” (PBL) curricula to try and better engage students ( ). In radiology residency, clinical exposure at the workstation often tended to surpass the effectiveness of didactic lectures as a resource. Now as an academic radiologist I am teaching both in the clinical and didactic settings, tasked with the role of trying to convey knowledge to trainees in an interesting and enduring way. Against this backdrop of extensive experiences in legal, business, and medical graduate education spanning well over a decade I read with great interest “A Review of Innovative Teaching Methods” featured in this issue of Academic Radiology ( ).
In their paper, Sivarajah et al build on the notion that traditional didactic lectures should be but one arrow in the academic radiologists’ quiver and suggest more widespread adoption of four innovative teaching methods, Audience Response Systems (ARS), Long Distance Teaching, the Flipped Classroom, and Active Learning. While billed as innovative, and certainly new technology makes ARS and Long Distance Teaching more feasible, some of these concepts are actually tried and true concepts and have similar correlates in other professional education.
The paper starts with discussion of ARS, and offers examples of how ARS might be incorporated into lectures in ways beyond merely the uninspired true/false, multiple choice approaches of yesteryear. “Bidirectional ARS” and “asking questions on the fly” capture some of the aspects of the Socratic Method that law schools have found so effective, but at the same time allowing a level of anonymity protective of public embarrassment. I would suggest that fear of embarrassment is actually a very strong motivator for an individual to stay prepared day to day, and likely in and of itself is a strong educational tool, one many radiologists have already been exposed to during their medical school rotations in the form of “pimping” ( ). But allowing the more crowd-shy individuals to participate without public recourse likely adds to the popularity of ARS and is perhaps concordant with the gentler culture found within our specialty; even many law schools have backed away from this method out of concern that it might leave individuals traumatized ( ). “Peer instruction” aspects of ARS, allowing students to briefly discuss aspects of a case with their neighbors before repolling, may also capture aspects of the teamwork approach so prevalent in today’s business schools.
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References
1. Kraemer D.J.M., Rosenberg L.M., Thompson-Schill S.L.: The neural correlates of visual and verbal cognitive styles. J Neurosci 2009; 29: pp. 3792-3798. March 25
2. Willingham D.T., Hughes E.M., Dobolyi D.G.: The scientific status of learning styles theories. Teach Psychol 2015; 42: pp. 266-271.
3. The Paper Chase, 20th Century Fox (1973).
4. See eg: Problem-based learning in medical school: a student’s perspective. Ann Med Surg 2016; 12: pp. 88-89.
5. Sivarajah R.T., Curci N.E., Johnson E.M., et. al.: A review of innovative teaching methods. Acad Radiol 2019;
6. Khullar D., Doctors getting ‘pimped’, The New York Times (May 26, 2016)
7. Gersen J.S.: The socratic method in the age of trauma, harvard law review. 130:2320 https://harvardlawreview.org/2017/10/the-socratic-method-in-the-age-of-trauma/ <Accessed 10/4/18>
8. The HBS Case method, https://www.hbs.edu/mba/academic-experience/Pages/the-hbs-case-method.aspx <Accessed 10/4/18>.