About Medical Education Unit

As a result of the knowledge explosion and the broad, comprehensive changes in medical information, and given that medicine is a science of constant change and updates due to the abundance of new developments and challenges facing this profession, it has become impossible—and indeed unfair—to convey it fully to students. Therefore, advanced countries, for quite some time now, have started to modify their curricula to make medical students lifelong learners, enabling them to keep pace with the continuous developments in this field. This has been achieved by utilizing and applying both modern and traditional learning theories, which emphasize that learning only occurs through active engagement by the students themselves. These theories place students at the center of the educational process, rather than the instructor.

The traditional curricula in these countries, still applied in some regions, rely heavily on the instructor, while the role of the student is merely that of a passive recipient who retains only a small fraction of the information after exams. This highlighted the need to overhaul all curricula—not only medical ones but across all sciences. Here, the term “curricula” refers not just to the academic syllabi but to all activities within the college, including teaching methods, examinations, evaluations, and other elements aimed at fostering students’ self-motivation in developing their learning.

The modern curricula have introduced comprehensive changes, redefining the role of the instructor as a supervisor and facilitator of the student’s learning process. The primary responsibility for learning now lies with the student, who is tasked with scientific and practical activities from the very first day of college. These activities are carried out individually and collaboratively with peers. Cognitive theories have proven that active and collective learning surpasses traditional methods of learning, which rely on lectures and rote memorization for exams without emphasizing the benefit or application of the information.

To bridge the significant gap in medical education and culture caused by Iraq’s prolonged isolation from the outside world during the previous regime, the College of Medicine at the University of Wasit, with substantial support from the university administration, cultural relations coordination, and collaboration with the British Council, initiated cooperation with the Department of Medical Education at the College of Medicine/University of Leicester to modernize its curriculum. The cooperation from the British side was extensive and included three workshops to educate and reinforce (for us) modern concepts of medical education and learning theories.

The curriculum they follow is module-based, where students do not study separate disciplines such as anatomy, chemistry, biology, etc., as divided by traditional branches. Instead, in this system, students study each body system as a module, with related subjects integrated into the module to develop comprehensive thinking skills. In the first phase, the focus is primarily on basic sciences, with 20-25% devoted to clinical sciences. This ratio is reversed in the second phase. Throughout each study phase, students are provided with a workbook that includes the names of the module coordinators, general and specific objectives, and emphasizes teamwork. The workbook clarifies the connections with the key principles underlying the curriculum, such as professionalism, medical ethics, and collaborative work.