Learning to Learn

Learning to Learn traces the teaching legacy of one of America's most gifted medical educators. Eugene Stead was active at Duke University for more than 50 years and chaired the Department of Medicine there from 1947-1967. His philosophy of education touched future doctors, nurses, and physician assistants at Duke and across the nation through leaders he trained. The heart of Stead's legacy is a handful of principles that are as essential today as they were 50 years ago: that people are the most important product of any educational system; that patients are the focus of learning to doctor; that taking responsibility is essential to learning; that in a community of learners, everyone has something to contribute; that teachers learn by teaching; that no two patients and no two learners are the same, and that, for the learner-mentor relationship to work optimally, it needs to be close and maintained over time. These principles are captured and amplified in seven papers presented and discussed by several of Stead's colleagues and pupils at a symposium held in 2008 in honor of the 100th anniversary of Stead's birth.