Beyond “Teach a Man to Fish”: Communal Meta-cognition as the Key to Sustainable Professional Development

Improvement in the quality of aid and development in a community requires a feedback loop within the community, known as “communal meta-cognition.” This is relevant to medical education in resource-poor countries and is illustrated with the author’s own surgical experience. The usual source of truth is unquestioned allegiance to established wisdom rather than the dynamic state that comes through the feedback loop of asking questions, most importantly of one’s self. Some elements of what this might look like in a medical education context are illustrated.