Core Concepts of Pharmacology

The Core Concepts of Pharmacology Education Project

A project of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology Education Section (IUPHAR-ED)

Launched in 2021, this ambitious project aims to transform pharmacology education by helping students and educators to focus on the knowledge that matters. We have already achieved our first aim – to produce a consensus list of core concepts of pharmacology education. We are now working together to develop approaches to teaching and assessing these concepts within transformative concept-based curricula.

IUPHAR education section endorsed and adopted the Core Concepts of Pharmacology Education project in 2022.

Key facts

Over 300 pharmacology educators from 21 countries across six continents have contributed to the project

An expert group of 75 decorated pharmacologists with over 1000 collective years of pharmacology education experience is driving the work

We have now identified 25 foundational Core Concepts of Pharmacology Education

See the list here

The project aims to assist pharmacology educators world-wide by developing and sharing these resources freely.

A list of foundational core concepts of pharmacology education.
Definitions of each core concept.
Extraction of sub-concepts and important considerations for each core concept.
Concept maps that explicitly show relationships between concepts within concept families.

Development of teaching, learning and assessment resources for educators.
Development and validation of a concept inventory.
Rigorous publications that describe and validate each of the above actions.

Benefiting the International Pharmacology Community

The project will inform new curricular development. We will provide an evidence base for including core concepts into the learning outcomes of a range of basic science and health professional curricula.

Findings of this project will also enable the assessment of student learning of the core concepts.

Students can devote time to things that matter.
Educators can assess the success of their teaching.
Education leaders can assess the success of their programs.
Educators and education leaders can evaluate innovations in teaching and learning.

The International Core Concepts of Pharmacology Education Project is endorsed and adopted by IUPHAR education section. This website is administered by Monash University Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.