Teaching and learning surgical skill

I have only scratched the surface of all that we know about teaching and learning surgical skills. However, the two elements I chose to highlight are central to how our trainees learn these skills and how we teach them. As you read through the series of articles that will follow in the next issues, look for how these educators approach the various learners they encounter, those that range from unconsciously incompetent to consciously competent. See how they break down a procedure into its component parts and focus on specific skills. Or in Maslow's parlance, shift effortlessly from unconsciously competent to consciously competent. See how they create an educational plan for their learner, identify gaps, address those gaps, and move on to the next gap. A structured curricular approach. I hope this small introduction to some fundamental educational principles will allow you to organize and extract even more personal wisdom from the articles that will follow.