Topics Covered

Questioning, listening and responding; Sharing expertise; responding to students; leading discussion; questioning

• Instructor: Richard Schwartzstein, Ellen and Melvin Gordon Professor of Medicine and Medical Education
• Student Group: Graduate
• School: Harvard Medical School
• Course: Homeostasis 1
• Clip Length: 3 minutes, 4 seconds (1:03:19-1:06:23)

Go to Schwartzstein Clip 6

Topics Covered

Offering feedback ; Building community; documenting growth; specific praise

• Instructor: Richard Schwartzstein, Ellen and Melvin Gordon Professor of Medicine and Medical Education
• Student Group: Graduate
• School: Harvard Medical School
• Course: Homeostasis 1
• Clip Length: 2 minutes, 9 seconds (1:01:08-1:03:17)

Go to Schwartzstein Clip 5

Topics Covered

Questioning, listening and responding; Sharing expertise; responding to students

• Instructor: Richard Schwartzstein, Ellen and Melvin Gordon Professor of Medicine and Medical Education
• Student Group: Graduate
• School: Harvard Medical School
• Course: Homeostasis 1
• Clip Length: 1 minute, 24 seconds (52:06-53:30)

Go to Schwartzstein Clip 4

Topics Covered

Questioning, listening and responding; Sharing expertise; responding to students; offering explanation; pushing students’ thinking; metacognition

• Instructor: Richard Schwartzstein, Ellen and Melvin Gordon Professor of Medicine and Medical Education
• Student Group: Graduate
• School: Harvard Medical School
• Course: Homeostasis 1
• Clip Length: 4 minutes, 1 second (34:39-38:40)

Go to Schwartzstein Clip 3

Topics Covered

Offering feedback; debriefing the simulation; specific praise; responding to students; attending to affective elements

• Instructor: Richard Schwartzstein, Ellen and Melvin Gordon Professor of Medicine and Medical Education
• Student Group: Graduate
• School: Harvard Medical School
• Course: Homeostasis 1
• Clip Length: 4 minutes, 29 seconds (24:19-28:48)

Go to Schwartzstein Clip 2

Topics Covered

Peer learning; Case teaching; setting up the simulation; working in teams; creating urgency; time management; instructor’s role in simulations

• Instructor: Richard Schwartzstein, Ellen and Melvin Gordon Professor of Medicine and Medical Education
• Student Group: Graduate
• School: Harvard Medical School
• Course: Homeostasis 1
• Clip Length: 4 minutes, 5 seconds (1:02-5:07)

Go to Schwartzstein Clip 1

Simply because one student has offered a correct answer does not mean other students are on the same page. In this video, Richard Schwartzstein discusses how he responds to student questions and responses in a way that invites the whole class into the conversation. “Tell me more about that,” is one of his go-to responses to gently probe students’ understanding and demystify their thought process for other learners in the room. “If they tell me the right answer, I don’t always validate it,” Schwartzstein explains, “because I’ll still turn to someone else and say...

When the simulation has formally ended, this does not mean the learning is over. Debriefing the simulation experience with students is a critical component of achieving instructors’ learning objectives. More intense than a paper case, role plays and simulations also stir emotions and raise stress levels among participants. Given this, taking time to debrief the anxieties and emotions simulations raise is imperative. In this video, Richard Schwartzstein, Jeffrey William, and Homeostasis I students discuss the importance of acknowledging the emotional component of the...

As an expert in one’s field, it can be challenging for instructors to move to the periphery of the classroom and let students take the lead. Not doing so, however, can impede students’ problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Fortunately, acting as a facilitator in simulations does not necessarily mean instructors stand idly by. In this video, Jeffrey William discusses how instructors in Homeostasis I find ways to guide students’ thinking without overpowering them by posing questions, issuing subtle hints, and purposefully walking away. Considering the role of...

When a simulation or role play requires the direct involvement of only a small subset of students, the rest of the class may find themselves disconnected from the action. Even students within the subset of chief participants can become disengaged if their individual role is ill-defined. In this video, Richard Schwartzstein and Jeffrey William discuss how strategic role assignments can maintain engagement and “involve the crowd.” In this simulation specifically, the main actors in the simulation fulfill roles that mirror those on a hospital floor, while other...

Most fields, especially those that involve working with people, are not nearly as straightforward as textbooks might have students believe. However, many students find confronting uncertainty and not getting the “right answer” to be a discomforting experience. In Homeostasis I, Richard Schwartzstein and Jeffrey William see simulations as powerful exercises to get students used to navigating uncertainty. Through modeling, questioning, and devising scenarios without clear-cut answers, Schwartzstein and William emphasize to students the importance of “being okay with...

Teacher-driven lessons afford instructors the luxury (and limitations) of a predictable plan. By contrast, the learning that emerges out of simulations is evolving, spontaneous, and contingent on the specific set of individuals participating. For facilitators, these circumstances require being open to students’ thinking and flexible with lesson plans, without letting efficiency or structure go by the wayside. Richard Schwartzstein calls the “unscripted” nature of simulations the challenge and fun in their facilitation. Noting that “no two sessions are exactly the...

Simulation scenarios are carefully chosen in order to build on and complicate textbook concepts in realistic settings. In this way, Homeostasis I is a “flipped classroom”: students prepare and learn concepts independently while time in class presents opportunities to put those concepts into practice and synthesize them during simulation-inspired discussions. Richard Schwartzstein underscores this element of transfer as critical to simulation design. Accordingly, the concepts students confront in the learning exercise might be “foundationally the same” but presented...

In contrast to paper cases, simulations in the classroom push students to enact what they have learned. In Homeostasis I, instructors immerse groups of students in high-stress, realistic hospital scenarios. The exercise forces student groups to collectively come to a consensus about treatment and quickly, all the while navigating the stress that accompanies taking care of patients. From the instructors’ end, engineering such a learning space requires hitting what Richard Schwartzstein calls the “sweet spot,” in which students are agitated enough to make...