Education Strategic Plan
A growing community of leaders from across the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and its academic health network are transforming the teaching and learning enterprise, guided by聽the Faculty's Education Strategic Plan, which is part of the Faculty-wide Project Renaissance strategic planning initiative (2017-22).
The Education Strategic Plan has three primary goals:
(1) The Faculty聽embraces evidence-based,聽learning-centred educational聽approaches that foster deep learning and values student engagement in the education mandate.
(2) The Faculty fosters and encourages a culture that supports interdisciplinary and interprofessional partnerships underpinned by a collaborative educational environment.
(3) The Faculty聽promotes educational research, scholarship and innovation in the health sciences in order to advance our understanding of teaching and learning and to inform policy and practice within and beyond the University.
New Strategic Directions
We want our learners to be articulate, effective communicators and team players, collaborative leaders and creative problem-solvers聽who persevere in the face of challenge, are motivated and passionate about what they are learning and are committed to lifelong learning and evidence-informed health care research and translational interactions.
Richer biomedical training with a focus on innovation in the basic sciences that includes better integration between basic and clinical research and between research and practice will be prioritized. This will include more explicit training on how to translate basic research into clinical and industrial applications.
We will enhance our ability to conduct and fully integrate educational research in our pedagogical practices and pursue strategies that will enrich the learning spaces, so as to enable evidence-based learner-centred and interprofessional approaches.
Future graduates we are aiming to produce:
In the biomedical sciences: Our graduates will benefit from a more interactive and interdisciplinary learning experience and be better prepared for multiple career trajectories in academia, health care, industry or government so as to better meet societal needs.
In the health professions: Our graduates will more successfully transition from learner to practitioner and teacher, and will effectively translate research evidence and mobilize and integrate interprofessional patient-centred teams for better health care.
Our faculty of the future will apply more evidence-based approaches to teaching and will be recognized for their scholarship and innovation in education.
-W.B. Yeats
Organizational tenets and guiding principles:
- The needs and benefits to key stakeholders are paramount. The primary stakeholders are our learners and through them, the society at large.
- Equity across programs (health professions and basic sciences) should be valued and sought out.
- Transparency and stakeholder engagement is critical in developing and implementing the strategic plan.
- The process should be iterative with continuous monitoring and adjustments made to maximize outcomes and impact.
- The Education Strategic Plan should be nimble; flexible enough to add new directions, approaches or new goals in order to leverage new opportunities as they arise.