Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Practical points for brain‑friendly medical and health sciences teaching

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

. Sahar Ghanbari
. Fariba Haghani 1
. Malahat Akbarfahimi 2

1 Medical Education Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

2 Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Special learning outcomes are considered for medical and health sciences education
which can be acquired by some interactive learning systems in the human brain. Given the importance
of this issue, based on literature, we attempted at mentioning certain practical points for medical and
health sciences educators to employ in preclinical and clinical teaching.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: We searched databases of PubMed, Proquest, Scopus, ERIC, and
ISI Web of Science for relevant literature from January 2010 to January 2019.
RESULTS: From a total of 1029 records, 30 articles along with 35 papers from snowballing and hand
searching were included in this study. The following 12 main items were encompassed: teaching
students the basic neuroscience of learning and set individual learning goals, “just right challenge”
heeding the balance between supervision and autonomy, brain‑friendly coaching, repetition with
spaced learning, visualization as a powerful learning tool, multimodal teaching, cognitive learning
and mental model, cognitive‑emotional learning, active and social learning, creativity and art, sleep,
medical faculty’s participation regarding the courses of “neuro‑education studies,” and “neuro‑myths”
were suggested for brain‑friendly medical and health sciences teaching.
CONCLUSIONS: We considered 12 practical points for brain‑aware medical and health sciences
teaching according to the recent literature on the basis of the association between education, cognitive
science, neuroscience, and psychology. Interdisciplinary research and practice regarding this issue
can improve teaching–learning quality, students’ well‑being, and ultimately patient outcomes.

Keywords

Cognitive science
education
learning
medical
teaching
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 9, Issue 10
October 2019
Pages 1-11

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