Changing conceptions of teaching in medical faculty

Abstract

Background: The Association of American Medical Colleges and Howard Hughes Medical Institute have urged medical faculty to develop in themselves, and in their students, habits of critical professional inquiry, while stressing the importance of integrating formal learning with hands-on, practical experience.

Aims: This study describes the impact of a year-long faculty development program on conceptions of teaching held by 16 faculty in a medical school affiliated with a large private Midwestern research university.

Method: Using pre and post semi-structured interviews, researchers identified three conceptions of teaching – transmission, acquisition, and engagement – found in participants, comparing how participants’ conceptions changed by the end of the program.

Results: Researchers found that 13 out of 16 (81%) faculty developed or maintained a more complex understanding of teaching by the end of the program.

Conclusions: This study recommends that faculty developers (1) encourage their faculty to reflect substantially on what it means to teach – with the goal of assisting faculty to move beyond the idea of teaching as transmission or even as acquisition, to conceiving it as helping their students ask deep questions and make conceptual connections for themselves; (2) help faculty understand that developing a more complex understanding of teaching is as crucial to their professional development as developing their research and clinical skills; and (3) provide substantial opportunities for participants to explore teaching and learning as an evidence-based practice with colleagues and students.