A Health Policy Course Based on Fink's Taxonomy of Significant Learning

Objective. To incorporate Fink's Taxonomy of Significant Learning into a course and determine whether doing so increased students' knowledge of and interest in healthcare policy. Design. A healthcare policy course for second-year doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students was redesigned to incorporate activities reflecting Fink's Taxonomy including completing a required reading, outlining the required reading, presenting the outline to a small group of peers, attending lectures, and completing a final policy project and simulation activity. Assessment. The effectiveness of the course was assessed using a pre-post non-randomized control design, with nursing and social work students serving as the control group. Interest and knowledge scores increased significantly among students in the intervention group. Differences between the low-interest students and the rest of the class identified on the precourse tests were not apparent on the postcourse test. Implications. Applying Fink's Taxonomy to course activities increased students' interest in and importance placed on learning health policy.