MERIT puts education first with educator and project awards

The McMaster Education Research and Innovation Theory (MERIT) program recently awarded one educator with sustained contributions and two projects that will enhance the faculty experience at the Norman Education Research Day.

The Norman Education Research Day is dedicated to celebrating the rich history and future of Health Professions Education research and scholarship across the Faculty of Health Sciences and McMaster University. MERIT is an education services program in the Faculty dedicated to supporting its schools, departments and programs in advancing health professions education scholarship.

“Our Faculty is filled with incredible educators and scholars. The Health Professions Educator award recognizes sustained educational contributions as teacher, innovator, mentor and supervisor. The education scholarship grants fund innovation that ensures our Faculty will continue to be a leader in training the next generation of health professionals,” said Jonathan Sherbino, professor in the Department of Medicine and assistant dean of Health Professions Education Research.

The Health Professions Educator Award

The Health Professions Educator Award acknowledges the longitudinal contributions and sustained excellence to health professions education within the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Nominees are senior faculty and leaders in their respective programs or departments and have made substantial, sustained contributions to education including innovation in clinical/classroom teaching, graduate supervision in health professions education, mentorship of health professional learners and faculty, education program design/innovation, or education scholarship.

Congratulations to Suzanne Archie, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, who has received the 2024 Health Professions Educator Award. Archie was awarded for her significant contributions as an educator, focusing on mentorship, equity, and innovation in medical education. She has championed anti-Black racism initiatives, developed award-winning educational videos, and has been a pioneer in supporting and mentoring Black and racialized learners, creating a more inclusive and supportive educational environment.

Education scholarship fund

The MERIT education scholarship fund promotes and supports scholarship within the Faculty. All Health Sciences faculty members are eligible for funding support and the project should focus on a question or problem relevant to the Faculty. Up to two projects are awarded $25,000. Congratulations to the winning projects:

“When the White Coat Only Comes in One Size: an Intersectional Qualitative Study of Anti-Fat Bias in Medical Education”

Principal investigator: Renate Kahlke, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine

With the aim of understanding how anti-fat bias may affect those learning and practicing medicine, the researchers will ask: 1) How do fat medical learners and doctors understand their intersectional experiences in medical education and medicine? 2) How do fat learners and doctors feel that their fatness and its intersections with other identities may have influenced their professional experiences and opportunities (e.g. medical school admissions, residency match, entry to practice)? 3) What social and systemic factors influence fat learners’ and doctors’ success in medicine, such as external and self-assessments of competence, career decision-making, and relationships with patients and colleagues?

“FOAL study – Feature Optimization for Anatomy Learning”

Principal investigator: Danielle Brewer-Deluce, assistant professor in the Department of Pathology & Molecular Medicine

In modern anatomy classes, starting the curriculum with learning nominal anatomy is meant to act as a scaffold for future content. While intentionally designed, this approach is insufficient, as the cognitive demands imposed by this task exceed cognitive resources available to novice learners. Thus, the researchers hypothesize that there exist more manageable subcomponents in this seemingly homogeneous task which could be scaffolded to reduce cognitive load and improve learner outcomes. Specifically, landmark proximity and key-views required during learning are two facets to be further explored. As such, the objective of this study is to evaluate the relationship between proximity and key-views with learning nominal anatomy such that evidence-based pedagogical decisions regarding teaching methods and resources employed can be optimized for novice students.