BOX 4 Sets of questions on the course arrangements in ethics and law
1. Curriculum ends and means
What are the learning outcomes in ethics and law for your medical school? Given available resources, are there particular areas of special priority? What variety of learning experiences can address these educational goals?
2. Curriculum development
What activities in ethics and law are currently provided? Where in the timetable do these take place (systems, blocks, sessions)? How may this be developed according to the goals prioritised above? What measures are in place, or may be required, for course evaluation? Are there faculty stakeholders who can open up areas for development? Which committees and curriculum groups are essential for you to join?
3. Curriculum design: learning, teaching, and assessment What is the core content in ethics and law intended for all students? What forms of optional learning are potentially available to some students? How may learning be structured across year groups within the calendar? What teaching accommodation is needed and available for these sessions? What are the possible methods of course delivery in these venues? Are there additional options for online learning or portfolio learning? Who are the other educators in ethics and law throughout the course? What support or development might these tutors and facilitators require? How are assessment tools matched with the sampling of learning outcomes? Who will conduct the assessment of coursework and examinations?
As we contemplate matters such as these, it quickly becomes apparent that they are interdependent (for example, assessment will derive from the learning outcomes specified at the start) and lead to a cascade of supplementary questions. Again, some questions further down the list may for practical reasons be among the soonest that need to be addressed, such as who will deliver teaching sessions and who will do the assessing of coursework and medical school examinations.
As well as operational tasks to consider, there is also the overall strategy of the course. Box 5 shows three common approaches in ethico-legal curricula (these are not in any hierarchy). The pragmatic approach relates to what students need to know in terms of regulatory frameworks and professional codes of practice as a knowledge base on which to build. The embedded approach also has an accent on professional themes, but more in a mode of students’ formation of professional identity and its importance for ethico- legal decision-making. (This is separate from the meaning of ‘embedded’ by distributing ethics and law across systems teaching through horizontal and vertical integration.) The theoretical approach is centred on models of obligation and jurisprudence in philosophical ethics and academic law.
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Guide 53: Ethics and Law in the Medical Curriculum
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