Competently supporting the current and future generations of medical education students requires an in-depth look at how and why our current generation of learners struggles and how to intentionally support the behavioral, emotional, and cognitive struggles of our learners. The consensus of medical educators is that our learners have changed. They resist in-person class attendance, desire individualized feedback even at the earliest stages, and struggle with anxiety and stress in profound ways. Have our medical school supports for struggling learners shifted along with the learners they are intended to serve? Often, supports or interventions for struggling learners target only cognitive struggles and solely prioritize cognitive engagement. However, the current body of medical education literature calls for a holistic view of our medical learners accompanied by holistic supports that engage the whole learner. It is clear that medical students encounter non-cognitive struggles that can manifest in academic struggles. Learning to identify the source of a student’s struggle and creating interventions that can deliver timely support while engaging the learner behaviorally, emotionally, and cognitively is critical for the future of medical education. The significance of this focused session is that it demystifies the engagement domains and the non-cognitive struggles our medical learners face, encourages collaboration across institutions, stages, and academic offices, and equips medical educators with practical supports they can begin using as soon as they return home.

Agenda & Methods

• Part One: Struggling Learners (30 minutes)
  • Poll Everywhere (3 minutes)- Characteristics of a struggling learner
  • Small Group Discussion (7 minutes)- What are common struggles learners in your context face?
  • Small Groups Report (5 minutes)
  • Presentation (10 minutes)- Engaging the whole student & the cognitive/non-cognitive domains of struggle among the current generation
  • Q&A (5 minutes)
• Part Two: Interventions (30 minutes)
  • Poll Everywhere (3 minutes)- When do learners in your context need the most support?
  • Small Group Discussion (7 minutes)- What are some interventions or strategies do you or your institution currently employ to support struggling learners? What domain of struggle does that assist with?
  • Small Group Report (5 minutes)
  • Presentation (10 minutes)- TAMCOM Interventions, their alignment with the Engagement Framework & Domains of Student Struggle, and outcomes (10 minutes)
  • Q&A (5 minutes)
• Part Three: Put it into Practice (30 minutes)
  • Small Group Activity (15 minutes)- Reflecting back on the most common struggles learners face in your context, brainstorm at least one intervention for each of the three engagement domains: Behavioral, Emotional, and Cognitive. Consider: How, when, and by whom would these interventions be delivered?
  • Small Groups Report (10 minutes)
  • Q&A (5 minutes)