Which pedagogical principles should clinical teachers know? Teachers and education experts disagree Disagreement on important pedagogical principles

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Practice points

Experienced non-clinician medical educators identified and rated 30 pedagogical principles, knowledge of which could enhance teaching effectiveness. Experienced clinical teachers rated the same 30 principles but their ratings of the importance of these principles differed markedly from those of the non-clinician medical educators. This lack of congruence in ratings between non-clinician medical educators and clinical teachers could have significant implications for faculty development programs and the application of pedagogical principles in the clinical milieu. Program co-coordinators and faculty developers should utilize the strengths of both groups to assure the effective design, delivery and assessment of educational programs.

Table 1.  Rank order of the importance to clinical teaching of 30 basic pedagogical principles, according to experienced clinical teachers (n = 21) and medical education experts (n = 13). The mean ratings of each item are shown in parentheses (1 = must know, 2 = should know, 3 = nice to know, 4 = not important to know)

Pedagogical principles or concepts	RANK (and rating) by clinical teachers	RANK (and rating) by education experts
Goals and objectives	1 (1.15)	1 (1.00)
Role modeling	1 (1.15)	19 (1.38)
Communication skills & concepts	3 (1.20)	26 (1.54)
Supervision of learners	4 (1.24)	19 (1.38)
Active vs. passive learning	5 (1.39)	4 (1.15)
Problem solving for learning	6 (1.48)	29 (1.22)
Case-based learning	6 (1.48)	23 (1.46)
Knowledge, skills, attitudes	6 (1.48)	12 (1.23)
Mentoring	9 (1.62)	19 (1.38)
Performance-based assessment	9 (1.62)	15 (1.31)
Pedagogical implications of learner	9 (1.62)	3 (1.08)
Relevance for learning differences	12 (1.65)	23 (1.46)
Learning environment	13 (1.67)	26 (1.54)
Lesson structure, planning	13 (1.67)	23 (1.46)
Adult learning theory	15 (1.72)	15 (1.31)
Summative vs formative assessment	15 (1.72)	1 (1.00)
Coaching	17 (1.77)	15 (1.31)
Reasons for assessing learners	18 (1.86)	4 (1.15)
Motivation for learning	19 (1.90)	4 (1.15)
Curriculum structure & design	20 (1.91)	12 (1.23)
Self regulation of learning	21 (2.00)	12 (1.23)
Assessment to drive learning	22 (2.05)	15 (1.31)
Transfer of learning	23 (2.10)	4 (1.15)
Self directed, teacher directed learning	24 (2.20)	26 (1.54)
Unintended consequences of assessment	25 (2.29)	4 (1.15)
Characteristics of assessment instruments	26 (2.48)	19 (1.38)
Peer and near-peer tutoring	26 (2.48)	19 (1.38)
Criterion vs. norm referenced assessment	28 (2.58)	4 (1.15)
Key features for assessment	29 (2.72)	3 (1.08)
Idiosyncratic problem solving	29 (2.72)	29 (1.62)