Learning Environment In Medical Education

Bloom described the learning environment concept as “the conditions, forces, and external stimuli which challenge on the individual. These forces may be physical, social, as well as intellectual forces and conditions”. He conceived a range of environments from the most immediate social interactions to the more remote cultural and institutional forces. He regarded the environment as providing a network of “forces and factors which surround, engulf, and play on the individual”(Bloom 1964).

According to Vygostsky’s theory of social cognitive development learning environment is the “culture” that determines students’ learning development (Vygotskiĭ & Cole 1978). In classrooms, clinical wards, and community health centres, students’ learning scaffolding

2013). Similarly, the General Medical Council (GMC) of the UK recommendations for ‘Tomorrow’s Doctors’ have stimulated major learning innovations in the undergraduate medical curriculum in British medical schools. An improvement of the learning environment is one of the major goals of these innovations (General Medical Council

2.3.2 The Hidden Curriculum

One practical way to think about the curriculum within a healthcare professional educational institution is as a whole that constitutes three aspects – the formal, the informal, and the hidden (Harden et al. 1984). The learning environment has elements that overlap all three aspects of the curriculum. Of importance to this thesis is the recognition that learning environments form part of a large and complex entity that interacts with all three parts of an educational curriculum, particularly with the hidden curriculum.

In recent years, educators have acknowledged the importance of differentiating between formal-explicit and informal-implicit hidden dimensions in the process of becoming a healthcare professional (Hafler et al. 2011). The formal curriculum, here narrowly defined, refers to the actual course of study, the planned content, teaching, and evaluation approaches used in any educational setting and includes formal policy statements and regulations.

The hidden curriculum refers to cultural values that are transmitted, though not openly acknowledged, through formal and informal educational endeavours (Palmgren 2016). However, the concept resembles Dewey’s concept of “collateral learning” in educational settings, which may have more of a lasting effect on learners than the formal curriculum (Hafler et al.