The DOI matches its Crossref record; 57 of the 59 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Using cognitive theory to facilitate medical education
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Educators continue to search for better strategies for medical education. Although the unifying theme of reforms was "increasing interest in, attention to, and understanding of the knowledge base structures", it is difficult to achieve all these aspects via a single type of instruction. METHODS: We used related key words to search in Google Scholar and Pubmed. Related search results on this topic were selected for discussion. RESULTS: Despite the range of different methods used in medical education, students are still required to memorize much of what they are taught, especially for the basic sciences. Subjects like anatomy and pathology carry a high intrinsic cognitive load mainly because of the large volume of information that must be retained. For these subjects, decreasing cognitive load is not feasible and memorizing appears to be the only strategy, yet the cognitive load makes learning a challenge for many students. Cognitive load is further increased when inappropriate use of educational methods occurs, e.g., in problem based learning which demands clinical reasoning, a high level and complex cognitive skill. It is widely known that experts are more skilled at clinical reasoning than novices because of their accumulated experiences. These experiences are based on the formation of cognitive schemata. In this paper we describe the use of cognitive schemata, developed by experts as worked examples to facilitate medical students' learning and to promote their clinical reasoning. CONCLUSION: We suggest that cognitive load theory can provide a useful framework for understanding the challenges and successes associated with education of medical professionals.
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“The effects of different teaching methods on students’ cognitive load have been described in other settings [5, 20–24].”
From Teaching a single manual therapy technique at a time reduces cognitive load in physiotherapy students: a randomized controlled educational study (2025) · cites this paper as [23]
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The evolution of cognitive load theory and its application to medical education
Leppink, J., & Van den Heuvel, A. (2015) · Perspectives on Medical Education · doi:10.1007/s40037-015-0192-x · Cited by 299
The use of educational technology for interactive teaching in lectures
Tuma, F. (2021) · Annals of Medicine and Surgery · doi:10.1016/j.amsu.2021.01.051 · Cited by 341
Cognitive Load Theory for debriefing simulations: implications for faculty development
Fraser, K. L., Meguerdichian, M. J., Haws, J. T., Grant, V. J., Bajaj, K., & Cheng, A. (2018) · Advances in Simulation · doi:10.1186/s41077-018-0086-1 · Cited by 124
Sewell, J. L., Maggio, L. A., ten Cate, O., van Gog, T., Young, J. Q., & O’Sullivan, P. (2018) · Medical Teacher · doi:10.1080/0142159x.2018.1505034 · Cited by 124
Tackling wicked problems: how theories of agency can provide new insights
Varpio, L., Aschenbrener, C., & Bates, J. (2017) · Medical Education · doi:10.1111/medu.13160 · Cited by 75
Metadata
- Authors
- Qiao, Y. Q., Shen, J., Liang, X., Ding, S., Chen, F. Y., Shao, L., Zheng, Q., & Ran, Z. H.
- Affiliations
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Ran, Zhi Hua
- Venue
- BMC Medical Education
- Published
- 2014-04-14
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 79-79
- ISSN
- 1472-6920 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3989791
- OpenAlex
- W2136692330
- Cited by
- 111
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 6
- FWCI
- 7.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BMC Medical Education (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University
- Chinese Medical Association
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Innovations in Medical Education
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Family Practice › Clinical Reasoning and Diagnostic Skills
- Keywords
- cognitive load theory, cognitive schemas, worked examples, clinical reasoning, medical education, problem-based learning, memorization, expert-novice differences, anatomy education, pathology education
- MeSH terms
- Cognition, Education, Medical, Humans, Learning, Psychological Theory, Teaching, Problem-Based Learning
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