Diverse Ways of Knowing and Learning: The Impact of Culture

ABSTRACT

Medical educators tend to approach teaching and learning grounded in their disciplines (content areas of expertise), culture of origin, and their own learning styles and ways of knowing. This article reviews dimensions for medical educators to consider in preparing themselves and their learners for maximum effectiveness through a lens of cultural awareness and understanding. Internationalization and advances in technology and communication have forever changed knowing and learning as we once knew them. Developments in communication and transportation permit work and learning to occur across many boundaries with large geographical and cultural distances. Audio- and teleconferencing, webbased delivery (both synchronous and asynchronous), internet resources, and email allow for work and learning to occur seemingly with no boundaries. However, the boundaries that do persist are typically due to misunderstandings related to cultural differences among the people and their educational institutions. These results are apparently based on the assumption that technology is either culture-blind or culture mitigating and hence that we can overcome distance and difference. Yet when we draw on social science (cultural anthropology), cognitive science (distinct learning activities and multiple intelligences) and educational psychology (learning styles) and test that assumption, we learn that our education practices, including applied technology, can be even more effective by keeping culture in mind. Specific instructional techniques have been identified as most effective across learning styles and include advance organizers and case method. These techniques also facilitate the stages of learning regardless of culture.

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