For Dan Wolpaw, questions often matter more than answers.
“In the short term, students may view their careers in terms of answers, but in the long-term, their personal and professional lives will be about asking and navigating questions,” said Wolpaw, Professor of Medicine and Humanities who retired from Penn State in December.
“Patients are our classrooms. Real learning depends on the questions we ask ourselves, the uncertainties that we explore, and on what the Japanese call ‘shoshin’, or beginner’s mind.”
Wolpaw’s commitment to inquiry, exploration, and discovery has been a hallmark of his 40+ years in medical education, first at Case Western Reserve University, where he received his MD and then taught for three decades, and more recently, at Penn State College of Medicine.
This commitment has guided him through numerous educational leadership positions and has been an important focus of his scholarly work. It has also been foundational to the courses he developed, co-developed, or directed on subjects ranging from critical thinking to immunology to health systems science.
His accomplishments and innovation in medical education have earned him several national awards including recognition for his career achievements in Medical Education from the Society for General Internal Medicine and most recently, the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award from the American Association of Medical Colleges in 2020.
Wolpaw began his teaching career at a boarding school for 8-13 year-old children in the west of England as a “field study” year following his sophomore year in college. The experience was an important step in the development of his educational philosophy.
“I had no real background in education, but I had this idea that students should be asked to do more than just memorize content and rules,” he said. “I wanted to give them opportunities to engage with their learning.”
So rather than drilling his students on adjectives and adverbs in English class, he gave them daily triggers to write creatively, so they would learn language by doing language.
Prioritizing ‘doing’ is a cornerstone of the curriculum at the Regional Medical Campus at University Park, which Wolpaw spearheaded and where he served as senior consultant for educational innovation.
“Students there begin with people experiences in clinical settings and then bring these patient stories to the classroom as their springboard for inquiry and learning,” he said. “While core content is framed through both traditional and innovative curriculum strategies, there is a substantial commitment to students driving and authoring their own learning agenda rather than simply acquiring content.”
He added, “It is a hard balance, but I really think we have made headway in realizing John Dewey’s vision of experience and education.”
Wolpaw’s commitment to inquiry has led him to embrace complexity as a key principle in learning and medical care. “However much we might gravitate toward certainty, we live, learn, practice, and discover in a complex environment where there is rarely certainty or agreement,” he said.
Last fall, as he was planning his retirement, Wolpaw said he was looking forward to having more time to write. An English major at Amherst College, he devoted his entire senior year to creative writing in the area of Arthurian history and legend.
He later based a Grand Rounds on Yeats, wove the life of William Carlos Williams into workshops for medical students and residents, and introduced his inpatient teams to poetry.
Since coming to Penn State he has contributed to Wild Onions, and like many faculty, has benefited greatly from the support and encouragement of Kimberly Meyers, professor, Department of Humanities.
“It was a remarkable gift to me to finish my medical career hanging out in the Department of Humanities and working with an incredibly gifted and creative group of educators in the College of Medicine,” he said. “I will always be very grateful.”