Newly appointed health professions educators in the Faculty of Health Sciences (FoHS), University of the Free State (UFS), Bloemfontein, South Africa, are given the opportunity to participate in an orientation programme. The programme is specifically designed for educators in the health professions, in line with international trends, [1] and serves to inform educators of their specialised role in training students in the FoHS. Changes in health and higher education legislation in 1997 [2,3] influenced the role of the medical educator, required new approaches to medical education and proposed that the educator should be both developed and empowered. [4] While it is acknowledged that some newly appointed academic staff members might have teaching experience and/or have had prior educational training, [5] research conducted at the UFS Centre for Teaching and Learning [6] indicated that a critical developmental area identified by educators was 'the ability to engage with students' in lectures. The introduction of a microteaching activity on the final day of the orientation programme was considered to be a suitable developmental tool. Microteaching activities are regarded as providing an environment for teachers to improve their teaching skills and giving them the opportunity to reflect on feedback. [7] Background. A microteaching experience was introduced into an orientation programme for newly appointed health professions educators. Objective. To ascertain whether the participants experienced improved confidence in their lecturing ability after the microteaching experience. Methods. The activity was evaluated by other participants and experts in education by means of a rubric. It was also video-taped to allow for future self-evaluation. Participants' reflections were documented by means of a qualitative questionnaire, with specific criteria designed by the Division Health Sciences Education, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. Results. Newly appointed educators reflected that the prospect of participating in the microteaching activity initially made them feel apprehensive in terms of 'being evaluated'. Once they had completed the activity, they reported that it had been very useful to obtain feedback from peers and expert educators. Collegial relationships in this cohort were strengthened by learning from peers. Conclusions. Health professions educators found that being evaluated in microteaching was valuable, as they subsequently felt more confident as lecturers and also more competent to implement newly acquired teaching skills.
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