Since the term “integrated curriculum” first appeared in medical education literature in the 1980s, the integration trend has continued to gain momentum as it supports enhanced knowledge retention and application of biomedical, clinical, and health system sciences knowledge. Among integrated curricula, variations of case-based learning (CBL) modalities have been widely adopted. While these CBL approaches facilitate the development of critical thinking and application in a patient-centered context, they do not consistently provide a comprehensive, structured learning framework for students.

The Clinical Presentation Curriculum (CPC) model, an integrated curriculum framework that was reported first in the 1990s by the University of Calgary, organizes learning around common clinical presentations called “schemes” (schemas). These schemas serve as a visual map for concept relationships. They are inductive decision and concept-sorting trees that provide an important expert-guided framework for both content integration and critical reasoning development.

Incorporating schemas into CBL curricula can provide a framework to strengthen knowledge acquisition and content connections. Effective schemas include objectives (medical knowledge, clinical skills, behaviors, and health system science) that are linked to course objectives. With careful planning, schemas facilitate the organization of student learning as they practice connecting foundational and clinical concepts of increasing complexity.
Learning how to develop effective schemas takes practice. This focus session will provide tips and strategies for developing schemas that can be used to augment the learning experience for students in a variety of CBL curricula. Participants will have opportunities to build future collaborations by co-developing and sharing these useful tools.

Agenda & Methods
This four-part interactive focus session plan encourages active participation through a mix of group activities, real-time feedback, brainstorming, and hands-on practice.

• Part I: Building common ground- sharing of experiences and challenges with case-based learning (CBL). (20 min)
  Teaching Methods: Interactive presentation and small group activity
  Activity:
  • A short overview of the evolution of integrated curricula and the status of case-based learning.
  • Break into small groups to discuss experiences with case-based curricula. Each group identifies two strengths and two limitations and posts their findings on a shared digital whiteboard (e.g., Miro or Jamboard).
  • Reconvene as a large group to discuss an AI-generated summary of the discussion.
• Part II: Clinical Presentation (CP) curriculum schemas-examine key elements of schemas. (20 min)
  Teaching Methods: Interactive presentation and discussion
  Activity:
  • Short presentation on the background and design of the original clinical presentation-based curriculum.
  • “Anatomy of Schemas”: Large group discussion of example schemas to identify key elements of schemas and determine their effectiveness.
• Part III: Becoming a schema architect- Building schemas and fostering collaborative learning and refinement through peer feedback. (40 min)
  Teaching Methods: Interactive group work and feedback
  Activity:
  • Small group activity to develop a schema based on an assigned clinical presentation.
  • Presentation of small group schemas with feedback.
  • Large group discussion of the overall schema-building experience.
• Part IV: Beyond schema building- Generate collaborations and ideas for developing and integrating schemas in participants’ current curriculum. (10 min)
  Teaching Methods: Large group discussion based on specific prompts
  Activity:
  • Conclusion of session with sharing actionable ideas for integrating schemas into their existing curricula.