• Recognise the need for students to move from simple fact memorisation to higher level learning objectives including searching, analysis and

Fig 17.1 Information overload – a major problem facing medical education.

Fig 17.2 Core learning outcomes should be highlighted.

synthesis of information. A theme running throughout the book is the changing role of the teacher from information provider to someone who opens the door for students and allows them to access and retrieve information for themselves.

• Rather than teach more than students are able to learn and expect them to remember only a small proportion when they enter practice, it is preferable in the teaching to emphasise the core or essential learning required.

• Provide the opportunity for students to study in more depth areas of their choosing as either electives or student-selected components (SSCs).

• It is consistent with outcome-based education and highlights the essential learning requirements for all students.

• It helps to counter the tendency for increasing specialisation in the curriculum.

• It helps to determine the equivalence of training between different programmes and facilitates the mobility of doctors.

• It provides a standard against which students can be assessed.

• Students have the opportunity to cover the breadth of knowledge while at the same time they are able to study in depth selected subjects of their choosing.

• Special study modules may be offered in subjects not normally addressed in the curriculum.

• Experience of a subject during an SSC may help students with regard to their career choice. Completion of a series of SSCs in a subject may count towards postgraduate training in that area, shortening the duration of postgraduate training. While unusual at present, this may be more widely recognised in the future.

• Teachers have the benefit of interacting with an enthusiastic group of students who have a special interest in their subject and who might be the researchers or teachers of the future.

• common in clinical practice

• representative of a serious or life-threatening situation in clinical practice

• an important prerequisite for other learning and illustrate an important principle.

• the statement of learning outcomes

• the list of patient presentations that is used as a framework for the curriculum

• the learning opportunities provided for the students, for example experience in the community

• the problems presented in a PBL curriculum

• the assessment.

• A more in-depth study of subjects included in the core curriculum. With a reduction in time allocated to basic sciences in the curriculum, students with an interest in the area have an opportunity to study anatomy or another basic science in more depth.

• Special aspects of clinical practice such as plastic surgery not covered in the curriculum.

• Topics unrelated to medicine but of possible relevance to a doctor’s future career, for example the study of a foreign language or business studies.

• Medical education and teaching skills. We have seen students generating useful learning resource material during an SSC.

• Inter-professional experiences, for example working as a member of an inter-professional team or shadowing a nurse. The latter proved a popular SSC in one school but mainly for female students!

• Research: clinical, laboratory-based or educational.

• Sequential. A block of core teaching, for example 8 weeks, is followed by a 2-week SSC option. This allows the student to explore the subject of the preceding block in more detail, or to study an unrelated subject.

• Intermittent. Blocks of time, for example 4–10 weeks, are allocated for SSCs at set times in the curriculum.

• Concurrent. The SSC topic is scheduled to run on half or one day per week alongside the core but on a topic not necessarily related to the core.

• Integrated. The SSC is integrated within the core topic programme allowing the student to study different aspects of the core in more depth. One option in an endocrinology course we offer is for the student to look at the laboratory investigation of endocrine disease, another to look at surgery and a third to look at the management of endocrine problems in the community.

1. Whether you are working in undergraduate or postgraduate training, has the appropriate balance between the core curriculum and SSCs been achieved in your programme?

2. Are the learning outcomes for the SSCs clear to the students and supervisors, and are they assessed appropriately?

3. Is a sufficient choice of SSCs available to students and are they given sufficient guidance to make their choice?