Life in Groups

In my undergrad program, a great emphasis was placed on group work and self-directed learning. The theory here is that in the real world, the world outside of the university bubble, knowing how to learn is key. True education, then, isn't having our head crammed with facts. It isn't having a professor stand up in front of a class and tell us what we need to know; it isn't learning what's going to be on the final exam. It's knowing how to learn in the future, knowing how to work with others, knowing how to decide for yourself what's important and useful information instead of having an educational authority figure dictate it to you. And knowing how to evaluate when you've done this successfully, and when you need to work on your skills.

In theory this sounds great...in practice, it's often frustrating. In practice, it looks like a bunch of undergrads sitting down with a teacher figure (the facilitator) and having him/her say "So what do you want to do in this class?" In practice, it's a period of being in the dark a lot of the time, of not knowing where things are going, of not understanding what the expectations are, and of not knowing exactly how you're going to be evaluated, which for most people in the program, being insane scholastic high-achievers, is bloody terrifying. It takes a long time to see the value of these classes, and I'm not sure I ever saw it completely.

Until now.

A big reason why I'm at the school that I'm at, instead of being at the school where I did my undergrad, has to do with the amount of self-directed learning involved. I didn't -- repeat, DIDN'T -- want to do something as important as medical education in such a self-directed fashion. I didn't have the self-confidence. However, I'm at THIS school, and not the school in my hometown, because the school in my hometown is diametrically opposed to self-directed or small-group learning in any form, and this school is a nice mix.

Except...I'm so USED to the self-directed learning process...and most of my classmates are not. So, while I'm long since over the particular fears and angsts of first year Inquiry class...I'm seeing a lot of my new friends and groupmates go through the same sorts of things. The "this is bullshit" phase...the "what the hell are they expecting of us exactly" phase...the "what do you mean I can give myself a mark" phase. And I hear myself parroting back the answers to these concerns that our Inquiry facilitators used to give us, and...yeah. It's a little bizarre to see things from the other side.

I'm also a little concerned that the facilitators we have are not as well-trained in the methods of self-directed learning as the ones we had in undergrad. These people are doctors, researchers, humanitarians and very very interesting individuals, but sometimes I'm not sure they fully buy what we're doing, either. And that doesn't help.

I still don't want to go to a more self-directed med school...but part of me wishes that all of us here had the same training I had in undergrad.

Off to group. I'm sure we're in for an interesting ride this year.

~isolde