Twelve Tips for Facilitating Visual Thinking Strategies with Medical Learners.

As awareness increases of the fundamental role of the arts and humanities in medical education, teachers must expand their skills to include arts-based pedagogical methods. With strong evidence to support its use with medical learners, Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is an arts-based method increasingly being adopted in medical education. VTS provides a structured way of leading interpretative discussions prompted by works of art.

The role of arts-based curricula in professional identity formation: results of a qualitative analysis of learner's written reflections.

Background: Professional identity formation is an important aspect of medical education that can be difficult to translate into formal curricula. The role of arts and humanities programs in fostering professional identity formation remains understudied. Analyzing learners' written reflections, we explore the relationship between an arts-based course and themes of professional identity formation.