Residency and fellowship programs employ formal remediation plans with the goal of helping struggling learners achieve competency. Unfortunately, nearly a quarter of remediation or performance improvement plans fail to achieve their intended outcomes. One potential reason is that most remediation interventions described in the literature often provide the same educational content and strategies that failed initially, missing an important opportunity for reframing. Transformative learning (TL) is an educational theory centered on moving a learner from a disorienting experience, through reflection, toward action. We believe the tenets of this theory are easily applied to the topic of remediation. Our webinar will provide a background and overview of TL theory, including where and how it is currently used in health professions education. Through practical scenario-based discussions, participants will explore how TL can foster insight and help motivate struggling learners. webinar participants will further realize that TL has broad applicability in health professions education. We will model how these techniques can be operationalized during individual coaching meetings between faculty and struggling learners. Finally, we will attempt to utilize TL theory in a manner so that our audience participants who may be unfamiliar with this adult education theory will have a transformative experience within our session, leaving with the inspiration, motivation, and skills to transform their learners.
Presenters: Benjamin Vipler, MD; Mel Anderson, MD, MACP; Ashley Fang, DO; and Adam Barelski, MD