Anne Kawamura
Briseida Mema¹ and Dominique Piquette
1 Critical Care Medicine Department, Hospital for Sick Children

Background
Entrustment is a key activity in competency-based medical education (CBME).
 must decide if the learner is able to work without supervision and if they are willing to take the risks inherent in the learner working independently(1). Therefore, educators must make entrustment decisions about a learner’s capability to adapt to novel contexts and to generate new knowledge. Yet, many of the assessments used in CBME assess current ability, based on retrospective data from observed performances, not future practice. If we are to make judgements about future practice, supervisors must assess learners’ ability to not only perform efficiently and effectively in routine situations, but to assess how they innovate when faced with new, complex, or unexpected challenges(1). Thus, entrustment entails decisions around a learner’s preparation for future learning(2). Preparation for future learning (PFL) is “the ability to learn new information, make effective use of resources, and invent new procedures in order to support learning and problem solving in practice.”(2) 

We know that we can assess learners’ PFL through controlled ‘double transfer’ designs in experimental conditions, where previous knowledge that is ‘transferred in’ can be used with new learning resources to ‘transfer out’ this knowledge to solve novel problems(3). What remains unclear is how we can assess PFL in workplace learning environments where learners’ performances are steeped in context and contingent on the constraints, affordances, and effectivities of both human and non-human elements. This workshop will explore the ways in which educators can assess PFL in the messy, unstructured workplace context to enable them to entrust learners with future practice and assess generative transfer in novel ways. 

Why is the topic important for practice?
Approaching assessment with a PFL lens prompts us to focus on how the learner effectively uses knowledge and skills for future learning. However, because PFL, like other ‘skills’ and ‘traits’ is a contextually-bound state, context matters when considering how to assess PFL in the workplace. Focusing on the interaction between PFL and context will be important for assessing future practice. 

Workshop format
Educators 

This interactive workshop will engage learners through a combination of short presentations, small group activities with large group debriefs, and case-based discussion. The proposed structure of the workshop is as follows: 

Short presentation with large group discussion on assessing capability vs. competence 

Presentation of case study with small group discussion to discuss pros and cons of PFL assessment 

Mini lecture and small group discussion exploring how context interacts with PFL assessment strategies 

Who should participate?
Educators, clinical teachers, researchers with an interest in assessment of preparation for future learning 

Level of workshop Intermediate

Take-home messages

Maximum number of participants - 25 

References (maximum three) 

1. Ten Cate O, Carraccio C, Damodaran A, et al. Entrustment Decision Making: Extending Miller's Pyramid. Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Feb 1 2021;96(2):199-204. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000003800 

2. Mylopoulos M, Brydges R, Woods NN, Manzone J, Schwartz DL. Preparation for future learning: a missing competency in health professions education? Medical education. Jan 2016;50(1):115-23. doi:10.1111/medu.12893 

3. Mylopoulos M, Woods N. Preparing medical students for future learning using basic science instruction. Medical education. Jul 2014;48(7):667-73. doi:10.1111/medu.12426