Optometric Education – Different Lenses, Same Vision

Keshia Elder, OD, MS, MS, FAAO

Each year as spring emerges, I become contemplative. I eagerly look forward to upcoming capstone events such as commencement and the white coat ceremony, while also taking time to reflect on the past. While reviewing manuscripts for the first of two Winter/Spring 2025 issues of Optometric Education, I realized we are still grappling with many of the same overarching issues in optometric education that existed when I entered academia.

My journey to optometric education was indirect. Although I taught high school math prior to entering optometry school, when I joined my first optometry faculty in the fall of 2007, I still had many questions about teaching optometry students running through my mind. These questions included:

• How do you effectively deliver didactic and laboratory optometric instruction?
• How do you help students translate didactic instruction into clinical applications?
• What encompasses appropriate and effective clinical grading of optometry students?
• How can we ensure that we collectively (intern and attending) provide appropriate patient clinical care?
• Is my clinical instruction effective and appropriate?
• Are the students adequately qualified and properly prepared for the rigors of an optometric education?

In essence, I wondered if I as an individual and my institution as a whole were applying the correct pedagogy to the correct audience of students. These are the same questions and concerns that have plagued me throughout my years in academia. Many colleagues in optometric education also ask similar questions and spend their careers finding answers through the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Optometric Education is the only peer-reviewed journal devoted to optometric education and through our journal, optometric educators can discover insight and data that can help inform their pedagogical approach.

There have been many advances in the field of optometry over the decades. These changes range from scope expansion to diagnostic and therapeutic technology. As optometry changes, our optometric institutions must proactively adjust curricula needs to meet the future demands of the profession. There have also been advances in methods of instructional delivery and expansion of educational technology (EdTech). Navigating these changes can be daunting. However, as optometric educators, we are driven to continuously provide the most effective educational training for our students.

Although changes in the field of optometry and optometric education necessitate that we adjust, I still have the same vision I have always had – to effectively apply the correct pedagogy to the correct audience of students to train outstanding optometrists. This vision is formed by my quest to discover the most accurate answers to my questions. It is my hope that this edition of Optometric Education will help you find some answers to some of the questions that guide your optometric education journey.

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