This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Millennials are the most prevalent generation of medical learners today. These individuals have a unique outlook on education and have different preferences and expectations than their predecessors. The majority of our learners belong to the Millennial Generation, while most faculty belongs to the Baby Boomer or Generation X cohorts. Millennial learners have distinct perspectives on their learning needs that differ with their faculty's perspectives on teaching and learning. These learning differences may contribute to intergenerational conflict. In order to be successful teachers, it is important to educate ourselves on these generational differences and cater to the needs of the learners. Heutagogy is a self-determined approach of learning, which appears to suit the millennial learners. Derived from the word " Heureskein" which means to discover, the term heutagogy was coined to describe self-learning, independent of formal teaching. This adds yet another learning theory to the established fields of pedagogy (child learning) and andragogy (adult learning). Heutagogy acknowledges that learner do immensely valuable work for themselves by filling in the gaps of their formal education through discovery and reflection. Heutagogy offers models of learning that are (1) self-determined, (2) peer-led, and (3) non-linear. These characteristics map onto social media applications and the democratization of knowledge and information. Heutagogical approach is an extension of the traditional andragogical and adult learning frameworks through its emphasis on meta learning, or learning how to learn. This article presents the paradigm shift of educational strategies from pedagogy to andragogy to heutagogy and focuses on the ground principles governing heutagogy. It also describes an innovative case study where principles of heutagogy were applied to train dental students using Facebook.
Attitude, ethics, and communication are key attributes in the doctor-patient relationship and to strengthen these qualities, the National Medical Commission, the body that regulates medical education and medical professionals in India introduced a course called Attitudes, Ethics and Communication (AETCOM) in the undergraduate medical curriculum. The objective of this study was to ascertain the perceptible qualitative influence of the modules in communication in the AETCOM course and to obtain feedback on its implementation. In this cross-sectional study, the attitude of medical students in all stages of training including internship was first explored using a Communication Skills Attitude Scale. Out of 27 modules in AETCOM course, five modules named foundations of communication deal with communication, and they are taught from the first to final professional years of training. After introducing communication modules in AETCOM for all professional years, feedback was collected from interns who had completed training in all modules. The interns provided feedback with a validated scale and two focused group discussions. Additionally, feedback from faculty involved in teaching AETCOM was analyzed. There was a significant increase in the positive attitude scores in the final year and internship compared to the first year. Eighty percent of the interns agreed that communication modules in AETCOM were useful and that they equipped them with the communication skills required for actual practice during their internship. Faculty agreed that these modules motivated the students to acquire communication skills. However, faculty also felt that these modules alone may not be sufficient to learn communication skills.NEW & NOTEWORTHY In the current study, we have assessed the attitude of medical students toward learning communication skills in all stages of their training. The novelty of our study is that communication modules were formally introduced for the first time into the medical curriculum and feedback was obtained from a cohort of interns who completed training in all modules in communication from AETCOM. The feedback from faculty and students provided us with concepts to improvise these modules.