Courtney Nagel, Texas A&M University Libraries
Clint A. Patterson, Texas A&M Center for Teaching Excellence
Edward P. Mendoza, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Gloria M. Conover, Texas A&M University
Purpose
Limited engagement among medical students in developing critical analysis skills and applying clinically relevant literature to address non-routine clinical challenges impedes their mastery of adaptive expertise. Adaptive expertise facilitates high-quality care by enabling providers to effectively recognize diseases and choose appropriate treatments. This study examines how our learning environment affects the development of adaptive expertise and explores how faculty coaching and mentoring improve students' ability to solve non-routine problems by applying new knowledge.
Methods
Two surveys assessed how faculty mentorship and coaching foster or support medical students' development of adaptive expertise. Participants rated their self-assessed competencies and reported teaching strategies aligned with the Master Adaptive Learner (MAL) model (Cutrer et. al, 2017).
Results
Using a 7-point Likert scale, the surveys assessed trust-building, communication, accountability, and challenge-embracing behaviors in mentorship. Open-ended prompts invited students to reflect on how faculty interactions influenced their planning, learning, assessing, and adjusting in the MAL stages and how research contributes to adaptive expertise. Thematic analysis of responses sorted these reflections according to students’ intrinsic motivations and struggles related to adaptive expertise development. Coaching and mentoring stimulate medical students’ adaptive expertise by cultivating their curiosity, mindset, and grit for life-long learning.
Conclusions
Preliminary findings suggest that developing adaptive expertise in medical education is deeply influenced by mentorship focused on dialogue, trust, and personalized feedback. The next steps will involve analyzing testimonials to uncover more nuanced insights into how lifelong learning habits are cultivated in a community-based public medical school environment. Addressing the observed limited engagement with non-routine clinical problems may play a crucial role in transforming the learning culture and further promoting long-term adaptive expertise in medical education.