How to Add Metacognition to Your Continuing Professional Development: Scoping Review and Recommendations

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Continuing professional development (CPD) is essential for ophthalmologists.
• Metacognition, or thinking about one's own thinking, is increasingly recognized as vital for effective learning in medical education.
• The integration of metacognitive strategies into CPD may enhance learning outcomes for ophthalmologists.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the literature on metacognition within the context of continuing professional development (CPD) for ophthalmologists.
• To identify and summarize techniques that could potentially improve metacognitive skills in CPD.
• To assess the quality of evidence supporting the use of metacognition in ophthalmologists' CPD.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search of PubMed using keywords 'metacognition' and 'CPD' or 'continuing medical education (CME)'.
• Supplemented search with a broad review of educational psychology literature across the medical education continuum.
• Synthesized findings on metacognitive techniques applicable to CPD.

Main Results:

• Only 5 articles were found directly linking metacognition and CPD/CME.
• Identified potential techniques: metacognitive awareness/instruction, cognitive error mitigation, needs analysis, and activity selection.
• Evidence for improving metacognition in CPD is weak, often extrapolated from other fields, and of low quality.

Conclusions:

• Ophthalmologists may benefit from improved metacognitive skills during CPD.
• Current evidence supporting metacognitive interventions in ophthalmologists' CPD is of low quality.
• Further research is needed to establish the efficacy of metacognitive strategies in this context.