Teaching and Learning Knowledge and Skills (TALKS): The Clinician as a Medical Educator -- teaching students to be educators

This senior elective will develop the participant’s teaching skills in the clinical setting. Principles of adult learning, effective teaching techniques and evaluation of performance, including effective methods of giving feedback to trainees, as well as case based teaching are presented in didactic sessions. Participants put theory into practice by team teaching with a Standardized Patient Instructor in the MS1 and MS2 PDX (Physical Diagnosis) course and by participating in additional teaching workshops. By serving as teacher and evaluator, the participant enhances his/her own clinical skills.

The course is credited as a four-week elective, although required activities take place throughout the fourth year. Each of the six didactic sessions is offered twice to accommodate participant schedules. In addition to didactic sessions, participants must teach a small group of MS1s in the evening eight times during the year and compose a reflection paper regarding what they've learned in the course. The participant is evaluated on the basis of attendance at all required activities, review of teaching performance, and feedback from faculty and the students they teach.

Course Learning Objectives:

By the end of this course, the student should be able to:

1. Recognize, discuss, and apply different theories of adult learning to your practice as a bedside educator. 
2. Analyze and apply methods of matching teaching to learning styles. 
3. Describe interactions between learner, teacher, climate, and content. 
4. Propose modifications to learner, teacher, climate, and content to optimize learning and comprehension.
5. Evaluate and propose modifications to various teaching scenarios to better engage ideal learners, teachers, climate, and content. 
6. Apply various evaluation tools throughout the course which can be further implemented into one’s own teaching practice. 
7. List the basic principles involved in teaching a skill. 
8. Demonstrate the ability to teach a skill using the basic principles, adapt and modify your approach, depending upon your learner. 
9. Demonstrate an engaging attitude toward your learners which promotes learning the skill.