Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

Academic Medical Centers have been recognized as a major force in the advancement and progress of contemporary medicine and medical care over the past 75 years (Re, 2006). The Association of Academic Medical Centers (AAMC) proudly attributes the impact of their members, stating “Medical education…research…patient care…[AMCs} are the places where the next generation of health care professionals is trained, where medical breakthroughs break through, and where patients can receive the world’s most advanced care” (AAMC, 2018). The intentional emphasis on research and innovation, coupled with the systematic and leveraged use of the growing professional competence of medical students provides an environment in which patients and their families are provided not best medical practices, but what are believed to be the next generation of medical practice. In contrast, during this same period, the influence of colleges of education on educational practice, and even on the advancement of educator preparation, has diminished. Accurately or otherwise, the colleges of education are, at best, viewed as insignificant in promoting educational improvement or “reform” and, at worst, as maintaining what is believed to be an unsatisfactory status quo (Darling-Hammond, 2017). The authors of this paper propose that research-extensive colleges and schools of education would benefit by aggressively adopting and implementing the three-pronged approach that characterizes the modern academic medical center. They further describe a new endeavor to do this in a large city in the Western United States.