Concept mapping: a tool to bridge the disciplinary divide.

Abstract

The American College of Women's Health Physicians has been exploring an on-line educational tool-concept mapping-to facilitate the development of an interdisciplinary and woman-centered women's health curriculum, and to implement The Women's Health Care Competencies for Medical Students. By using an on-line concept map of the menstrual cycle, we have built upon a standard piece of curricula that describes a unique aspect of female physiology and transformed it into a knowledge framework that builds capacity. The concept map highlights relationships between concepts and across disciplines, connecting the competencies to enable meaningful learning so that a learner can adapt their knowledge to multiple settings, incorporate new learning, and generate new knowledge to grow the interdisciplinary field of women's health. The on-line format allows access from multiple sites and courses, and allows the curricula to grow organically over time without upsetting current curricular design.