A personal reflection from 2023 on artificial intelligence in medicine, education and assessment. Drawing on automation in aviation, the author explores the potential benefits and the risk of losing the clinical experience and judgement needed when technology cannot provide an answer.
AI & Medicine: Saviour or Snake Oil? Read More
Applying for a clinical education fellowship? Nick Smith draws on his experience of shortlisting and interviewing to explain how to demonstrate meaningful teaching experience, match an application to the person specification and prepare a convincing interview and teaching session.
So you’d like to be a clinical education fellow? Read More
How can graphics help staff absorb unfamiliar procedures during a crisis? Nick Smith explains visual communication and cognitive load, sharing a clinical procedures guide, icons and practical design ideas developed for redeployed and newly qualified doctors during the first COVID-19 wave.
Daddy, what did you do in the COVID War? Read More
Which ideas from learning science should shape medical education? Nick Smith reviews cognitive load, dual coding, retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving and feedback, while questioning familiar approaches such as learning styles. A reflection on how evidence about learning translated into teaching during the 2010s.
A decade of education theory; the rise and rise of cognitive science of learning. Read More
How does sleep relate to learning? This discussion of Matthew Walker’s book, Why We Sleep, considers revision, shift work, teaching schedules and conference travel, asking how educational habits might better protect opportunities to rest.
We can improve your learning with no effort at all here at St Emlyn’s Read More
How can words and images work together to support learning? Nick Smith introduces dual-coding and related memory theories, with practical examples for slides, diagrams and teaching materials. He also explores how irrelevant visuals, crowded layouts and duplicated information can get in the way.
Dual coding: what is the picture doing? Read More
How can cognitive load theory help us teach? Nick Smith introduces the relationship between attention, working memory and prior knowledge, then considers its practical implications for presentations and clinical education. The discussion explores reducing unnecessary complexity, managing distractions and using questions and discussion to support learning.
Cognitive load: why teaching can be hard to follow Read More
