Houston Methodist Academic Institute
Office of Curriculum and Educational Development
2025 COURSES & WORKSHOPS
OFFICE OF CURRICULUM AND EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The Office of Curriculum and Educational Development provides educational development for clinical educators and interprofessional teams in the Graduate Medical Education community and allied health professional fields with workshops, one-on-one consultations and through the building of on-demand resources.
GOALS
• Support our community of educators and scholars with systematic approaches to address gaps in education
• Create a community of practice for teaching excellence and educational scholarship
• Foster interprofessional education and collaboration across our diverse learners and excellence in teaching
• Maximize internal and external resources to support the scholarship of teaching and learning
• Provide curriculum development services
SERVICES
• Recommend evidence-based approaches for designing, implementing and evaluating educational programs
• Partner with subject matter experts to develop quality improvement and patient safety education programs
• Prepare our teachers and learners to adapt to emerging needs or changes in reporting/evaluation standards
• Develop custom courses on teaching and learning competencies, and beginner research literacy for residents and clinicians
To request a service, visit forms.office.com/r/2EisiSWERx. For questions or more information, contact us at oced@houstonmethodist.org.
Each of the following courses are one-hour in length and available per request. Please allow at least five business days before the proposed course date so that we can plan appropriately. If you would like continuing education credit, please note that it could take up to 30 days to confirm credit(s).
Bedside Teaching
*CME Accredited
Teaching at the bedside with live patients in real time can be a powerful learning experience; however, fast-paced clinical settings, time constraints and lack of confidence can be a deterrent to using this methodology for some educators. Current research shows that educating healthcare providers about the importance of bedside teaching and providing them with practical essentials would foster effective bedside teaching and promote a conducive learning climate. This workshop, taught in tandem with a clinical educator and a curriculum developer, will highlight techniques to create a positive, effective learning experience and offer insights from senior clinical educators about how they implement these techniques in their setting. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss their own bedside teaching successes and struggles and collaborate with the session leaders on how to enhance their teaching practice.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. identify the purpose of bedside teaching.
2. recognize effective bedside teaching strategies.
3. discuss how to implement these strategies in your setting.
COURSE
Effective Question-Asking for Educators
*CME Accredited | **CNE Accredited COURSE
Question-asking is one of the simplest and most effective tools educators have to monitor learner understanding and to provoke critical thinking and problem-solving. To ask questions effectively, educators need to consider what type of knowledge — facts, comprehension, synthesis, analysis or evaluation — they want the learner to demonstrate and ask questions that will elicit the desired type of knowledge. In this workshop, we will discuss how to use Bloom’s Taxonomy of learner levels to create effective questions in clinical teaching settings and practice these skills using scenarios. Setting a positive learning environment is key to effective question asking. We will identify how ineffective questioning practices can harm the learning environment and detract from learning.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. describe how Bloom’s Taxonomy can be used to guide question asking.
2. contrast effective question-asking practices with pimping.
3. identify places in your teaching where you can incorporate effective question asking.
Helping Learners Progress Through Feedback & Evaluation
*CME Accredited
Accredited
Feedback helps learners know what they are doing well and what they need to work on. Providing effective feedback is a skill, and this course is designed to help participants improve at giving both verbal and written feedback. We will discuss feedback challenges and solutions and have opportunities to practice with case scenarios.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. identify strategies for giving oral feedback.
2. explain differences between norm and criterion-based feedback.
3. discuss key attributes of effective written feedback.
Helping Learners Progress Through Feedback & Evaluation – Practical Applications
*CME Accredited **CNE Accredited
Understanding how to give effective feedback is an important first step in improving as an educator, but practice is necessary to fully develop this skill. We will briefly review key oral and written feedback principles and focus on applying those concepts using vignettes, role playing and narrative revision activities. This course is a continuation of Helping Learners Progress Through Feedback & Evaluation.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. recall strategies for giving effective oral and written feedback.
2. role play giving oral feedback to learners.
3. apply effective written feedback practices to example statements.
How Others Learn: Experiential Learning and Evidence-Based Teaching Techniques
ACGME Clinician Educator Milestone: Educational Theory and Practice 7: Teaching
ACGME Resident/Fellow Competency: Practice-based Learning and Improvement
*CME Accredited
**CNE Accredited
The clinical learning environment consists of diverse healthcare professionals, which means creating an effective learning experience that address learners with different educational and training backgrounds. An effective learning environment must acknowledge, value and support learners from varying backgrounds who work together to provide patient care. Therefore, it is essential that educators have a general understanding of how individuals learn and be intentional about creating effective learning.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. describe Kolb’s 4 Cycles of Experiential Learning Theory.
2. list alternative, evidence-based approaches to learning/teaching.
3. describe how to create effective learning environments.
Beyond PowerPoint and Didactics: How to Add Active Learning Using the Flipped Classroom
Active learning is an evidence-based approach to learning that engages learners through activities and discussion, as opposed to more passive forms of teaching such as lectures. The flipped classroom is one approach to active learning — it “flips” the usual classroom dynamic by spending the in-class time on application and discussion rather than information dissemination. This course will show you how to structure a flipped classroom experience and provide ideas on how you can make your teaching more interactive.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. explain the benefits of active learning.
2. recognize the basic structure of a flipped classroom.
3. identify common challenges and solutions to implementing flipped classrooms.
Introduction to Andragogy - Teaching Adult Students
Adults do not learn the same way children do. Unfortunately, many medical educators instruct their learners as if they were still in grade school. Developing educational programs in clinical learning environments that are not adapted to adult learning can lead to a lack of learner engagement. The purpose of this session is to explain the definition and origins of adult learning theory, provide a general overview of learning in adulthood, describe how to facilitate adult learning, and characteristics of adult learners.
Upon successful completion of this course, learners will be able to:
1. recall the principles of adult learning and how they are applied in the development of educational programs.
2. develop an appreciation for the diversity of adult audiences, including differences in knowledge and experience, learning preferences, motivations, and potential learning barriers.
3. explain the role of learners, adult educators and learning organizations in improving performance and advancing professional development.
Introduction to Curriculum Development: Laying the Foundation for Systematically Designing Educational Programs
Curriculum development allows educators to take a thoughtful and methodical approach to determine what learners will be required to learn. The curriculum development process systematically organizes what will be taught, who will be taught and how it will be taught. In this session, we will present an overview of the nuts and bolts of curriculum development, as well as a brief overview of common instructional design models.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. define curriculum design.
2. explain the principles behind the design and delivery of instructional materials.
3. recall some of the widely recognized models of instruction.
4. list best practices for curricula development.
ACGME Clinician Educator Milestone: Educational Theory and Practice 7: Teaching | *CME Accredited | **CNE Accredited
Practical Applications of Curriculum Development: Mapping Out the Process of Systematically
Designing Educational Programs
ACGME Clinician Educator Milestone: Educational Theory and Practice 7: Teaching
ACGME Clinical Educator Milestone: Educational Theory and Practice 4: Learner Assessment
This workshop builds on the Introduction to Curriculum Development course by walking participants through the curriculum design process from start to finish. We break down each component and explain why it matters and how each piece relates to the larger whole. Participants will leave with a curriculum design template they can use as a guide for creating educationally sound workshops and programs on their own.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. describe the relationship between objectives, educational strategies and assessment.
2. explain the difference between a goal and an objective.
3. identify educational strategies that promote active learning.
4. define the purposes of assessment and evaluation in education.
Teaching and Assessing Professionalism in the Clinical Learning Environment
ACGME Clinical Educator Milestone: Educational Theory and Practice 2: Professionalism in the Learning Environment
ACGME Clinical Educator Milestone: Well-Being: Well-Being of Learners and Colleagues
ACGME Resident Competencies: Professionalism
ACGME Resident Competencies: Interpersonal and Communication Skills *CME Accredited **CNE Accredited *CME Accredited
Professionalism is a core competency of medical residents and fellows (trainees) in residency and fellowship training programs. Patients, medical societies and accrediting organizations expect physicians to be professional. Therefore, teaching faculty should be able to identify unprofessional behavior and teach and assess medical professionalism in the clinical learning environment. However, training programs often struggle with educating trainees in the area of professionalism. In addition, there is a general lack of consensus regarding how to define, teach, assess and remediate trainees who have lapses in professionalism. The purpose of this course is to help teaching faculty identify unprofessional behavior and organize appropriate instruction, assessment methods and remediation processes for professionalism for their trainees.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. identify unprofessional behaviors of trainees. 2. recall approaches to teaching professionalism. 3. recall approaches to assessing professionalism. 4. define the purposes of assessment and evaluation in education.
How to Promote Growth Mindset in Learners
*CME Accredited | **CNE Accredited
Have you ever wondered why some people are able to persist in the face of difficulties and others give up?
This course will help you understand the role our mindsets play in how we respond to challenges and how we can help our learners develop this crucial skill for lifelong learning.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. recognize the key features of growth mindset theory and their relevance to healthcare education.
2. identify strategies to help your learners develop a growth mindset.
3. reflect on the implications of adopting a growth mindset for your personal and educational development.
How to Support Struggling Learners
All training programs in clinical settings have subsets of learners who struggle with some aspect of their training or clinical performance. Reviews of residency training programs have found a prevalence that 10% of learners have some kind of difficulty. Successful approaches to remediation apply models based on clinical skills to the learning setting. In this course, we will review some basic guidelines to keep in mind when remediating struggling learners in medical education settings.
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
1. identify the various components that impact a remedial educational diagnosis.
2. recall the steps of a successful remediation plan.
3. recall the Houston Methodist policies that address trainee underperformance.
Promoting Professional Identity Formation in Trainees
ACGME Resident/Fellow Competencies: Professionalism, Practice-based Learning and Improvement *CME Accredited
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. define professional identity formation.
Professionalism is a complex domain of competency that encompasses both behaviors and attitudes. Developing a professional identity is a sustaining, lifelong endeavor that allows clinicians to uphold their ideals, even in the face of undermining influences. This course teaches educators how they can encourage professional identity formation in their trainees and provides examples of what this looks like in action.
2. describe how communities of practice can foster professional identity formation.
3. identify educational approaches that foster professional identity formation.
Individualized Learning Plans for Residents
ACGME Clinical Educator Milestone: Educational Theory and Practice 1: Feedback
ACGME Clinical Educator Milestone: Educational Theory and Practice 9: Learner Professional Development
ACGME Resident Competencies: Practice-based Learning and Improvement
An individualized learning plan (ILP) is a personal learning “contract” that a resident develops based on their own reflection and self-assessment of the goals they want to achieve over time. An ILP represents an opportunity for residents to reflect on their personal educational goals, as well as articulate, plan, track, and monitor their progress through your training program. In this course, we will discuss the components of an ILP and how educators can facilitate the ILP process by helping residents create SMART goals and providing guidance through regular feedback and monitoring.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. recognize the importance of ILPs in promoting self-directed and lifelong learning.
2. identify the unique needs of adult learners.
3. describe the components of an effective ILP.
4. discuss how to implement ILPs with their residents.
Advising, Coaching, Mentoring: Role Definitions and Implications for Clinical Educators
ACGME Clinical Educator Milestone: Educational Theory and Practice 5: Remediation | *CME Accredited | **CNE Accredited
To adequately support learners, educators need to be able to identify what type of guidance is best suited to the learner’s individual needs — advising, coaching or mentoring. However, there is not broad understanding of the definitions of these terms, how they differ and in what situations each is most applicable. This workshop will help educators recognize actions and purposes of advising, coaching and mentoring and how to identify which role is best suited to meet the learner’s needs and capitalize on the educator’s time and skills.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
1. compare and contrast the actions and purposes of advising, coaching and mentoring.
2. identify the most appropriate role for a given situation.
3. describe strategies for effective supportive relationships.
Mitigating Bias in Education and Patient Care
ACGME Resident/Fellow Competency: Practice-based Learning and Improvement
ACGME Clinician Educator Milestone: Universal Pillar 3: Recognition and Mitigation of Bias
Implicit bias refers to unconscious and unintentional mental associations that impact our understanding and actions. Such biases, when brought to the clinical learning environment, can impact education and patient care. Therefore, it is important for physicians to recognize their own biases in communication and become familiar with strategies to mitigate the effects of bias on effective education and patient care. In this session, we will examine ways to assess and reflect on one’s personal biases and discuss approaches to proactively help mitigate the effects of personal bias on effective education and patient care.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. define how bias impacts education and patient care.
2. recognize the importance of proactively assessing and reflecting on one’s personal biases, both explicit and implicit.
3. identify strategies to mitigate the effects of bias on effective education and patient care.
COURSE
COURSE
Goal Setting for Learners
ACGME Clinical Educator Milestone: Educational Theory and Practice 9: Learner Professional Development
ACGME Resident/Fellow Competencies: Professionalism, Practice-based Learning and Improvement
Knowing how to write effective goals is a necessary skill for lifelong learning. This workshop will show you how to write SMART goals and will help you coach others towards achieving their goals through deliberate practice.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. identify components of a SMART goal.
2. create your own SMART goals.
3. describe how clinical coaching can help learners create and progress towards goals, if applicable.
*CME Accredited
**CNE Accredited
Professionalism: Recognizing and Managing Disruptive Behavior in the Clinical Learning Environment
ACGME Clinical Educator Milestone: Educational Theory and Practice 2: Professionalism in the Learning Environment
ACGME Clinical Educator Milestone: Well-Being: Well-Being of Learners and Colleagues
ACGME Resident Competencies: Professionalism
ACGME Resident Competencies: Interpersonal and Communication Skills
Professionalism is the foundation for the social contract between physicians and society. In exchange for the privilege of caring for patients, as well as the status and respect that accompanies that privilege, society expects physicians to practice in a professional and empathetic manner and to self-regulate. The goal of this session is to provide clinical trainees and teaching faculty with a foundational understanding of medical professionalism, explain why it matters in clinical learning environments (CLEs), and provide the tools to address unprofessional behavior when it is encountered.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. recognize the historical efforts and accreditation requirements associated with professionalism in the CLE. 2. define professionalism.
3. explain why professionalism matters in the CLE.
4. identify Houston Methodist Hospital resources that can be used to help deal with professionalism issues.
Psychological Safety: Fostering a Safe Environment for Learner Growth and Development
ACGME Clinician Educator Milestones: Administration 3: Learning Environment
ACGME Clinician Educator Milestones: Well-Being: Well-Being of Self, Learner, and Colleagues
ACGME Resident/Fellow Competency: Professionalism
Psychological safety has been a topic of considerable interest in various fields including healthcare over the past two decades. Evidence from empirical studies supports the idea that psychological safety not only matters in relation to quality improvement and patient safety, but also in clinical learning environments. However, there is still limited formal training on how to foster a psychologically safe environment for learners in clinical settings.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. define Psychological Safety (PS) and recognize its importance in creating a supportive learning environment in medical education.
2. recall the ACGME’s expectations regarding PS in the clinical learning environment.
3. explain how the lack of PS impacts effective team functioning.
4. describe how to foster PS in your setting.
5. identify institutional resources to help facilitate psychological safety in the clinical learning environment.
Safety Growth
Receiving Feedback: Effective Strategies for Responding to Feedback
ACGME Clinician Educator Milestone: Educational Theory and Practice 1: Feedback
ACGME Clinician Educator Milestone: Educational Theory and Practice 9: Learner Professional Development
ACGME Resident/Fellow Competency: Practice-based Learning and Improvement
The session will begin with a series of discussion questions asking participants if they seek feedback and if so, to describe how they go about doing this and how satisfied they are with the results. They will watch a short trigger video of a feedback exchange and reflect on what behaviors the learner demonstrates that support receiving feedback. The workshop will use the Johari Window concept to explain how everyone has parts of themselves they are aware of and parts they are blind to, which is why feedback is so important. We will provide strategies to facilitate asking for, responding to, and acting on feedback and describe how self-assessment and developing learning goals can help shape feedback conversations that are more actionable. Participants will watch additional short videos for learners to see good and bad examples of feedback seeking behavior and discuss how to overcome common barriers to asking for, responding to, and acting on feedback.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. identify strategies to facilitate asking for, responding to, and acting on feedback.
2. describe the role of individualized learning plans in assisting with self-assessment and developing a learning goal orientation.
3. explain how the Johari window framework can foster feedback seeking behavior.
Introduction to Learning Needs Assessment
ACGME Clinician Educator Milestone: Educational Theory and Practice 7: Teaching
*CME Accredited COURSE
ACGME Clinician Educator Milestone: Educational Theory and Practice 4: Learner Assessment
Conducting a needs assessment is an important step in systematically designing an educational program. This workshop will guide participants through the steps of conducting a needs assessment so that they better understand their target audience’s needs and align their educational program contents and delivery to meet those needs. Participants will get an opportunity to practice creating a learning needs assessment.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
1. describe a learning need assessment.
2. identify when a learning needs assessment should be conducted.
3. recognize the four steps of conducting a learning needs assessment.
4. demonstrate their ability to develop a learning needs assessment.
An Introduction to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Ever wonder about the efficacy of the active learning techniques you are using in class? This session will introduce the role and importance of educational scholarship in medical education. This workshop is for anyone who wants to learn more about assessing the impact of teaching and learning on their learners through sound research design focused on questions of interest. Participants will be exposed to common methods of data collection and analysis in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). This course is primarily designed for people who are new to the scholarship of teaching and learning.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. define educational scholarship.
2. compare and contrast SoTL to clinical research.
3. describe the challenges of educational scholarship in the healthcare setting.
4. investigate methods commonly used in SoTL.
5. explore the use of MedEdPORTAL in facilitating educational scholarship.
*CME Accredited | **CNE Accredited COURSE
Program Evaluation in Health Professions Education
Evaluation in clinical training/education is essential. At one time or another, nearly all educators will need to evaluate an educational program to determine its merit or worth. In clinical education programs, a program’s worth or merit is often anchored in specific outcomes that are spelled out based on accreditation requirements. Therefore, the important aspect is working backward from those accreditation requirements to evaluate one’s program and ensure that it meets the outcomes that have been established.
Upon successful completion of this session, learners will be able to:
1. understand the purpose and the process of program evaluation.
2. describe supporting theories, methodologies and strategies for program evaluation.
3. recall how to effectively communicate and report program evaluation activities.
Tools for Optimizing Learner Attention and Engagement
Is the ever-shortening attention span of our learners a myth? Learn more about the neuroscience behind attention and engagement and how you can create, manage and sustain engaging learning experiences.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
1. list the three types of attention in task performance.
2. summarize Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory.
3. describe four strategies to increase attention and manage cognitive load.
CME and CNE Accreditations
*Houston Methodist is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
These live sessions have been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™.
**Houston Methodist is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
Participants may be awarded one nursing professional development contact hour for attending each session in its entirety and completing the correlating post activity evaluation.