Dear Colleagues,
Individual members of the Publications Committee periodically highlight articles that they find interesting in Medical Science Educator, the journal of IAMSE, or from its previous incarnation, The Journal of the International Association of Medical Science Educators. Having been a course director for the first-year Biochemistry course for twelve years, I was intrigued by the title of a commentary published in a recent issue ofMedical Science Educator:“Teaching and Learning Medical Biochemistry: Perspectives from a Student and an Educator” authored by Mehdi Afshar and Zhiyoung Han from George Washington University of Medicine and Health Sciences (Med Sci Educ 2014; 24(3): 339-341). In this commentary, the authors acknowledge that advancements in medicine and biochemistry are inseparable but admit that many medical students and practicing physicians find learning biochemistry not only burdensome but irrelevant to most clinical practice. This article examines why medical students have such an adverse reaction to learning biochemistry and how it should be included in the curriculum so that it is better received.
The authors assert that factors that negatively affect student interest in learning biochemistry include redundancy with what students have learned in their undergraduate education, presentation of biochemical principles outside of a medical context, biochemistry content that does not appear on board examination (i.e., not “high yield”), and too much rote memorization that is only remembered for a short period of time.
How should biochemistry be taught in the medical curriculum? For the authors’ answer to this question, you can access this article and many others at www.iamse.org by following the link to Medical Science Educator. This article is also Open Access so it can be found at http://link.springer.com/journal/40670 and clicking on “View Open Access Articles.”
Individual members of the Publications Committee periodically highlight articles that they find interesting in Medical Science Educator, the journal of IAMSE, or from its previous incarnation, The Journal of the International Association of Medical Science Educators. Having been a course director for the first-year Biochemistry course for twelve years, I was intrigued by the title of a commentary published in a recent issue ofMedical Science Educator:“Teaching and Learning Medical Biochemistry: Perspectives from a Student and an Educator” authored by Mehdi Afshar and Zhiyoung Han from George Washington University of Medicine and Health Sciences (Med Sci Educ 2014; 24(3): 339-341). In this commentary, the authors acknowledge that advancements in medicine and biochemistry are inseparable but admit that many medical students and practicing physicians find learning biochemistry not only burdensome but irrelevant to most clinical practice. This article examines why medical students have such an adverse reaction to learning biochemistry and how it should be included in the curriculum so that it is better received.
The authors assert that factors that negatively affect student interest in learning biochemistry include redundancy with what students have learned in their undergraduate education, presentation of biochemical principles outside of a medical context, biochemistry content that does not appear on board examination (i.e., not “high yield”), and too much rote memorization that is only remembered for a short period of time.
How should biochemistry be taught in the medical curriculum? For the authors’ answer to this question, you can access this article and many others at www.iamse.org by following the link to Medical Science Educator. This article is also Open Access so it can be found at http://link.springer.com/journal/40670 and clicking on “View Open Access Articles.”
William E. Seifert, Jr.
Adjunct Associate Professor
McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics
The University of Texas Medical School at Houston
Adjunct Associate Professor
McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics
The University of Texas Medical School at Houston
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