The Need to Evolve Educational Systems Through Lessons from Medicine
As expectations grow about the role of education in developed countries, there is a crucial call for developing a pattern to guide educational systems towards improvement. Spain is recognized as a country that is in need of urgent improvements in its social and economic progress as they converge with the European Union. This situation has led to a proposal for educational systems to learn from medicine, with the medical profession seen as a success story and an appropriate role model for moving forward.
Education and medicine share a humanistic conception of the individual, they both aim to serve and improve the well-being of individuals regardless of any personal differentiating elements. Over the years, Medicine has advanced rapidly. The profession has become robust, integrating scientific developments and incorporating them into medical practice, all in the pursuit of serving the health and well-being of people while contributing to the common good.
The definition of a profession, developed by the Australian Council of Professions, perfectly aligns with the medical profession. This definition provides a blueprint for a teaching profession in Spain should it be achieved.
The integration of these decisive components of a successful medical profession suggests a roadmap for effective educational policies. The transposition to the teaching field of the selection procedure and specialized and postgraduate training of doctors has become a clear example for inspiration, such as the proposed “educational MIR”.
In conclusion, adopting the attributes of the medical profession, which has explained the success of contemporary Medicine, provides a new direction for advancing Spanish education to achieve higher levels of social prestige. As the world continues to change, how we educate should change as well, and the lessons that Medicine can offer might be the breakthrough that’s much needed.