Types of apprenticeship teaching in the reading room

The learning path describes clinical activities we want mastered.

By level of training, some the resident can do, some the resident is ready to learn next, some are for down the road.

1 Deliberate practice - If a skill is already in their wheel house, doing more with the mindset of continued improvement makes doing more of a routine activity valuable. This is a life long process. Reading another 25 CXR without really thinking about it won’t improve the radiologist. Doing another 5 LP’s with a focus on speed, patient comfort, or decrease radiation can improve a radiologist. Mindset before and reflection after are a part of this.

2 Modeling & Scaffoldign - If a task is just beyond their wheel house, and the resident is ready to learn it then attending modeling the task and attending trying to build a mental scaffold to help the resident bridge the knowledge or skills gap will help. This is the meat of our work in training. Sometimes a nudge is required to get the resident out of their comfort zone and into new difficult learning.

3 Inspire - If a task is well beyond their reach at their current level of training, then the task still can serve a way to inspire interest. This are expert level, specific or big picture, tasks that really make one an expert. These too are exciting and can help the resident if presented in the right context.