CLIME Conversation Cafe: Competency-Based Education, Assessment in Foundations

Conversation Cafe: Competency-Based Education | Assessment in Foundations

Friday, September 18, 2026 | 11:00am-12:00pm (AK), 12:00pm-1:00pm (PT), 1:00pm-2:00pm (MT)

Heather McPhillips, MD, UWSoM Vice Dean of Academic Affairs

While Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) is often discussed in the clinical learning environment, the Foundations phase at UWSOM offers important opportunities to help students build habits of a master adaptive learner that include recognizing what they do not yet know, making a plan to learn it, seeking and using feedback, and adjusting their approach over time. In the Foundations phase, this means helping students practice curiosity, motivation, growth mindset, and resilience early — not only so they master foundational science, but so they learn how to keep adapting as physicians as science evolves.  It also offers some yet untapped opportunities in our courses to more holistically assess our students and coach them on key competencies such as interpersonal and communication skills, professional behaviors, practice-based learning and improvement, and systems-based practice.