Leading education scientist is director of UHN's research institute
September 8, 2020
If Nicole Woods was asked at age 17 if she liked science, the answer would have been a definitive ‘no’.
It wasn’t until she got to university and was exploring her possibilities did she realize that science was an option.
“I just didn’t know what it was,” said Woods who grew up in Rexdale. “I used to think science was just physical science like biology, chemistry and physics until I entered the psychology department at McMaster University and learnt I was completely wrong and science has nothing to do with those things. Science is how you ask questions literally and that was eye-opening.”
As one of Canada’s leading education scientists, her work examines the role of basic science knowledge in clinical reasoning and the development of medical expertise.
“An education scientist is basically someone who is using a variety of disciplines to try to advance education science,” she pointed out. “We see education and learning as objects of study. We realize that if we can ever understand the process of human learning, we can make education better.”
Woods was recently appointed the Director of The Institute for Education Research (TIER) at the University Health Network (UHN).
Established last year as UHN’s seventh research institute, TIER focusses on research with a significant impact on health science professions.
The appointment, said Woods, is very notable for two reasons.
“I came into education research as a cognitive psychologist by training,” she said. “My background isn’t clinical. Normally, when you have a research institute in a hospital setting, the institute’s directors and other leadership are really reserved for bio-medical scientists or physicians. This is an unusual appointment and I am very proud of the achievement. It’s also rare to see women get this high in science. So, an institute director is a very important role for the hospital and the vast majority of professionals holding this position around the world are men. This is an accomplishment not only for myself, but other Black women in science.”
Woods is confident that TIER will enhance the UHN profile as a leader in transforming lives and communities through excellence in care, discovery and learning.
The UHN comprises Toronto General, Toronto Western, Princess Margaret, Toronto Rehab and the Michener Institute.
“Like all the other hospitals, the UHN has in its mandate advancing patient care and the health of our local and Canadian population,” she said. “From our standpoint, education is a part of that. Exceptional health care requires exceptional education. The things that our nurses, physicians and surgeons do every day are so much driven by their education and their own training. So TIER is intended to help us bring education science to the forefront of training for future physicians, nurses and surgeons. That’s why we really want to have this institute as a place where we can design the best education practices.”
Completing her PhD in Cognitive Psychology with a primary interest in categorization and human memory, Woods research focus in the last decade revolved around understanding the integration of basic and clinical sciences in clinical reasoning. She uses theories from cognitive psychology to grasp the mental processes and structures that underpin expertise across the health professions.
It was by happenstance that she was turned on to cognitive psychology.
Prior to entering McMaster University to pursue undergraduate studies in Psychology, she was unaware of the existence of the field of study.
“When I first came in, I was mainly thinking about clinical psychology, but the program exposed me to the opportunity to do research in psychology which I hadn’t considered,” said Woods who is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Family & Community Medicine. “There were a lot of things in undergrad that I had never seen before and cognitive psychology was definitely one of them. So, I had an opportunity during my undergraduate years to think about how we might use this science of cognition to think about education and training of physicians.”
Woods is a scientist in The Wilson Centre that is part of the Excel Lab that she runs jointly with cognitive scientist Dr. Maria Mylopoulos.
Working together since 2008, they formalized the lab four years ago.
“The aim of our research is to develop a model of expertise and expert development that informs the design of curricula to train future clinicians to effectively handle the evolving challenges of the healthcare system,” said Woods.
The scientists met 14 years ago when they started their careers as researchers.
“A colleague of ours suggested that our work was very aligned and that we would both benefit from thinking of ways to collaborate,” said Mylopoulos who is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. “It turned out he was right. Since then, Nikki has been my closest collaborator and she has become a great friend. As a researcher, she demands depth, clarity and rigour from herself and those around her and that’s why she’s renowned for her work both locally and internationally.
“While her success makes her incredibly busy, she still always makes time for colleagues and students. She’s an amazing mentor to many people in our community. While working hard, we still have fun. There’s a lot of laughter in our Lab as we both believe that taking the work seriously doesn’t mean we have to take ourselves too seriously.”
After finishing high school studies in 1997 at Martingrove Collegiate Institute, Woods spent eight years at McMaster University completing undergraduate and graduate studies.
Dr. Nicole Woods is one of Canada’s leading education scientists
One of four Canadian universities consistently ranked among the world’s top 100 institutions of higher learning, McMaster has a proud tradition of academic and research excellence.
“It has an excellent reputation for being kind of a middle-size university that’s very innovative,” she said. “I knew that it wasn’t going to be so large that I would get lost and yet it would still have all of the opportunities that are afforded when you go to a high level university. I was able to interact really closely with some amazing psychologists and world renowned scientists in their field. In addition, the community there and more particularly the psychology department, is so close knit and tightly connected.”
Woods said her most memorable education experience occurred during a conversation with a professor in her second year.
“I went up to him, asked a couple questions and he started talking about this study that we had read about in our text book and then said, ‘Well you know this experiment’, she said. “As he’s talking and describing it to me, I realized it was his experiment and I was shocked by that because never in my life had I met someone who produced science and knowledge. I hadn’t made the connection that one person that I would physically know could be achieving something and creating something that the world would never know about. That was eye-opening.”
In 2018, Woods was the recipient of the Distinguished Award for Excellence in Teaching and Educational Scholarship that recognizes an International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) member with an outstanding record of educational scholarship, including educational research and the dissemination of scholarly approaches to teaching and education.
The presentation took place at the IAMSE 22nd annual meeting in Las Vegas in June 2018.
The honour was hugely satisfying for Woods who has two sons, aged 11 and nine.
“It wasn’t just paying tribute to our science,” she said. “What was important about that award was that it came from an organization that recognizes that the science is useful and valued and they understand why it matters so much to me. That was a really big achievement for me and I am incredibly proud of it.”
Woods is the youngest of five siblings born to Tobago immigrants Parker Woods, a retired Canada Revenue Agency senior tax auditor, and Shirley Hamlet.
“My parents, I think in many ways, are like most immigrants from anywhere in the West Indies,” she said. “They are very hardworking and their role in my upbringing is very significant. They are hands-on and actively involved, always asking ‘What are you doing?’ and ‘Where are you going?’ They were always thinking what things will happen to this girl moving forward and they tried their best to prepare me for it. They are incredibly very supportive parents.”
