Inaugural lecture Alexandra Langers | You can be excellent in your field, but that does not make you a good teacher

Your inaugural lecture is titled ‘Medisch onderwijs, een vak apart’. What makes medical education a profession in its own right?

‘At LUMC, much of the teaching is delivered by specialists. That can be a medical or scientific field. You can be very strong in your field, but that does not make you a good teacher. It is something different to convey your knowledge in a good way. That is what makes medical education a profession in its own right.’

You are a doctor and a researcher, and your chair focuses on education. Why do you want to dedicate yourself to this?

‘I really enjoy teaching. When I became a gastroenterologist, I was allowed to coordinate a teaching block quite early on. I could adapt it to the newest insights and to the interaction with students. I get a lot of energy from people who want to learn and make progress. If you invest in good supervision, it pays off straight away. That brings direct satisfaction.’

‘At a certain point I also started doing research regarding to education. In medical research you often want to understand disease mechanisms in order to develop or improve treatments. The same applies to research on education. You do not innovate for the sake of innovation, but to introduce new teaching methods that work even better than the ones you used before. The nice thing about research on education is that it is close to practice. You can keep adjusting the education based on what you find.’

‘My enthusiasm for education also appears at policy level. Besides my work as a doctor, I am Vice Dean of Education at LUMC. In this role I help shape the education strategy across the organisation. This includes all core tasks of a university medical center, such as care, research and education. For me this brings everything together.’

What research lines are you working on?

‘The Education Expertise Center (Onderwijs Expertise Centrum) is the team within LUMC that conducts research on education. One research line focuses on technological tools, for example augmented reality. With special glasses, you see certain things in your surroundings that are not actually there. Think of the Pokémon Go trend a few years ago. There are augmented reality apps that help students learn the physical examination of the lungs or learn heart ultrasound. We are studying whether these apps can replace part of regular teaching. This turns out to be possible.’

‘We also use many multiple choice questions in medical education. Research shows that this is not the best way to test knowledge. Some students are very skilled at multiple choice questions because they recognise the answer from the style of the question. Later in their job there are no multiple choice questions. They must know why they make a certain decision. Short open questions match practice much better. We are already working on this.’

‘Our research also focuses on teacher professionalisation. There is a basic qualification for teaching, but no real follow up course. Yet education keeps changing. Think of more attention for diversity and inclusion or artificial intelligence. This requires continuous training. At LUMC this is not easy, because teaching is often only a small part of someone’s job. One direction I would like to move toward is core teachers. This is a specific group with a substantial teaching role who can receive proper training in this area. They have one foot in practice and one foot in teaching. This is especially important for skills training across programmes.’

What will society notice from your work as a professor?

'We already see more attention for prevention and for careers outside the hospital in the medical curriculum. Until recently the programme was very hospital driven. Teaching was also mostly provided by hospital specialists. This is now changing. We are training doctors who are firmly rooted in society.’

‘We also focus on interprofessional learning and collaboration across disciplines. For example, we are researching with a PhD candidate how to train Nursing and Medicine students together. We hope that this will improve collaboration between nurses and doctors in the long term. Studies show that the quality of care improves when you train across disciplines.’

If we may dream, where would you like the field to be in ten to fifteen years?

‘I hope that education in an academic hospital will be seen more as a main task. People do not always feel recognised for their achievements in education and do not always get enough time for it. Teachers also say that they would like more time and space to develop themselves in teaching.’

‘Part of the solution is more career opportunities in education. We are working on different career paths that make this possible. Another part is more recognition. Education is also a core task of an academic medical center. Our professionals deserve this appreciation. We are working hard on this. I hope that education will eventually be valued as much as research.’

The inaugural lecture of Alexandra Langers ‘Medisch onderwijs, een vak apart’ took place on 13 March. You can read the lecture text here (Dutch).