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Mastery Learning: Opportunities and Challenges

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Comprehensive Healthcare Simulation: Mastery Learning in Health Professions Education

Part of the book series: Comprehensive Healthcare Simulation ((CHS))

Abstract

This concluding chapter of Mastery Learning in Health Professions Education addresses two mastery learning centers of interest—opportunities and challenges. Six opportunities are discussed: (a) expand mastery learning curricula to include a broader range of skills training in medicine, nursing, and other health professions; (b) spread mastery learning curricula into patient education and education for family members and patient caregivers; (c) develop and test mastery learning curricula to better address training of clinical team skills; (d) widen education models where one’s peers and other professionals serve as teachers and assessors; (e) enlarge mastery learning domains to cover a much wider range of non-technical clinical skills; and (f) improve the quality, impact, and reporting of mastery learning research. Seven challenges are then presented: (a) assessment of complex clinical problems; (b) achievement of adaptive competencies in patient care; (c) the limits of mastery learning; (d) evaluation apprehension; (e) cultural and organizational questions; (f) mastery learning in the context of new and emerging technologies; and (g) in the USA, a lack of federal funding for mastery learning health professions education research. We hope this chapter will inspire other health professions educators to adopt and improve the mastery learning model in service of their learners and patients.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Departments of Medical Education and Preventive Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    William C. McGaghie

  2. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Departments of Medicine and Medical Education, Chicago, IL, USA

    Jeffrey H. Barsuk & Diane B. Wayne

  3. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Departments of Emergency Medicine and Medical Education, Chicago, IL, USA

    David H. Salzman

  4. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Departments of Pediatrics and Medical Education, Chicago, IL, USA

    Mark Adler

  5. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Departments of Medicine and Preventive Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    Joe Feinglass

Authors
  1. William C. McGaghie
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  2. Jeffrey H. Barsuk
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  3. David H. Salzman
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  4. Mark Adler
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  5. Joe Feinglass
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  6. Diane B. Wayne
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to William C. McGaghie .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Departments of Medical Education and Preventive Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    William C. McGaghie

  2. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Departments of Medicine and Medical Education, Chicago, IL, USA

    Jeffrey H. Barsuk

  3. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Departments of Medicine and Medical Education, Chicago, IL, USA

    Diane B. Wayne

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McGaghie, W.C., Barsuk, J.H., Salzman, D.H., Adler, M., Feinglass, J., Wayne, D.B. (2020). Mastery Learning: Opportunities and Challenges. In: McGaghie, W., Barsuk, J., Wayne, D. (eds) Comprehensive Healthcare Simulation: Mastery Learning in Health Professions Education. Comprehensive Healthcare Simulation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34811-3_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34811-3_21

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-34810-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-34811-3

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