Ideas Worth Decoding
Research-informed perspectives on health professions education, digital learning, and the scholarship of teaching.
13 articles
Featured article
We Keep Teaching Students Content. Who Is Teaching Them How to Become?
Health professions curricula are full of content. They are far less deliberate about professional identity formation — about the question of who a student is becoming, not just what they are learning.
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Decoding Reflections — From Dr. Noor
I Build Because I Keep Seeing Things That Could Work Better
The impulse to build is not ambition. It is a response to a specific kind of frustration — the frustration of seeing a gap, repeatedly, and knowing it does not have to be there.
The Loneliness of Starting Things
Nobody tells you how isolating it is to build something new — especially when you are building it inside a field that is not sure it needs what you are making.
From Thesis to Manuscript: Why the Conversion Matters
A thesis that stays a thesis reaches an examining committee. A manuscript reaches the field. The conversion is not just a formatting exercise — it is a decision about who your work is for.
Resilience in Bad Systems: What We Get Wrong
We teach resilience as if it is a personal quality to be developed. But resilience that asks individuals to absorb the cost of broken systems is not a virtue — it is a burden.
The Teacher AI Cannot Replace
AI can generate content, simulate scenarios, and provide feedback at scale. What it cannot do is be present with a learner in the way that changes who they become.
The Global South Problem in Health Professions Education
Most of the frameworks, evidence, and standards in health professions education were built in and for high-income contexts. The rest of the world is expected to adapt. That is not good enough.
The Hidden Curriculum: What We Teach Without Knowing It
The formal curriculum is what we plan. The hidden curriculum is what students actually learn — from how we behave, what we reward, and what we silently permit.
Using AI Without Thinking: The Risk Nobody Is Talking About
AI tools are being adopted faster than the critical frameworks to use them well. In health professions education, that gap is not just inefficient — it is dangerous.