Table 3.

Conditions for valuable formal learning activities 

Students identified formal learning activities as valuable and educational for learning clinical reasoning if...

…they are interactive, especially when the main goal is to start a discussion

…they allow explicit practice of the steps of clinical reasoning

…they allow cooperation with peers, either in small or in large groups

…they allow for observation of others (peers, teachers) when performing clinical reasoning

…they simulate clinical practice as realistically as possible (e.g. through the use of simulated [or real] patients or patient descriptions with extensive patient context)

…they allow practicing skills in new situations