In keeping with her habit of dishing out premium content, UIMSA has done it again by partnering with Lecturio -an online learning platform -to bring to her students an informative webinar on the science of learning and how it can drastically improve study outcomes. The program was held virtually on the morning of November 19 by 11 am and featured Miss Gladys Zugwai Ibrahim, a Lecturio medical education consultant and 500-level medical student, who anchored the hour-and-a-half-long program. If for any reason you weren’t able to attend, here’s a summary of what you missed:

Metacognition

This is the art of thinking about thinking. In essence, it refers to how we understand our learning pathway and enables us to identify areas of weakness. Thus, an important aspect of metacognition is figuring out what you don’t know, then finding ways to master these points rather than just trying to assimilate bulk info at once.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

This is a theory that demonstrates the confidence versus competence trajectory for most people. It has been found that the average person upon encountering new knowledge or a new discipline first ascends to “The Peak of Mount Stupid”, a place where a few hours of study creates the impression of knowing all, before descending to the “Valley of Despair”, the place where ignorance is made plain by a few targeted past questions or worse, someone’s request that you explain the subject matter to them. This leads to a gradual incline up the “Slope of Enlighten” that ends at the “Plateau of Stability” where true mastery is achieved.

The idea of sticking to specific learning styles was also refuted, in favour of the claim that the method of teaching should be tailored to the particular content, not the other way around i.e some information sticks better when delivered visually while others may stay longer if perceived via auditory or kinesthetic methods. All information cannot be processed in any one of these forms alone all the time.

How We Learn

There are three steps to learning:
Encoding –the process by which we internalize new ideas.
Storage – the process of retaining information.
Retrieval – the process of accessing information when needed.
A break in any of these three equals a defect in the learning pathway and poor outcomes.

Spaced retrieval aids storage.

Dual coding (taking in information via more than one sensory pathway e.g. auditory and visual simultaneously through watching videos) is far more effective than single coding for any subject matter.

Using question banks improves recall before the final examination day.

The anchor wrapped up with a special offer for UIMSAITES: a 50% discount on subscription on using the code UIMSA50, alongside two weeks free use of Lecturio Premium using this unique link:
www.lecturio.com/orgs/uimsa

Thank you UIMSA!

Opeolu Oreoluwa