Monash University researchers identify 17 ‘core concepts’ of pharmacology education

Originally published on the Monash Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences news site.

A team of Australian and New Zealand pharmacology educators, led by Monash University, have developed a novel criterion-based method to identify the core concepts of pharmacology education.

Core concepts are separate to topics, skills and facts. Instead they are fundamental ideas for students to learn, understand, remember and apply years after graduation.

Driven by a lack of firmly established core concepts within pharmacology education, the researchers conducted an exploratory survey of pharmacology educators in Australia and New Zealand, which ultimately resulted in identifying 17 core concepts.

The study, which was led by Monash’s Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Deputy Dean and Associate Dean of Education Professor Paul White, has been published in the journal, Pharmacology Research & Perspectives.

Professor White said: “A consensus list of the core concepts of pharmacology education is well overdue. In the last 30 years we’ve seen substantial advances in educators’ ability to measure students’ conceptual understanding in other disciplines, however these strides are yet to be applied definitively and systematically to the discipline of pharmacology.”

“The goal of this educator-led study was to refine the list of core concepts so that educators in Australia, New Zealand and around the world can use this concept inventory to not only test the attainment of the core concepts in pharmacology, but also to inform the development of new curricula.”