A critical reflection by participants on microteaching as a learning experience for newly appointed health professions educators

Abstract

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.

Social learning and integration factors that affect first-year medical students transitioning directly from high school

“…Under-preparedness was ranked the highest among factors influencing medical students' success in the first year of study. This finding highlights that first-year medical students who entered medical school directly from high school could lack the skill set and emotional tools required to adapt in their new education environment, as asserted by Swaminathan et al (2015) and Kridiotis and Swart (2017). The participants in this study confirmed being underprepared for university life and academia, which was also observed by Hamid and Singaram (2016).…”

“…Medical programme management monitors students' academic progress, and students identified as at-risk academically (those who achieve below 50% in assessments during their first semester of study) are advised to seek support from the DSLD. Despite these attempts, not all first-year students accepted into the UFS undergraduate medical programme successfully complete the first academic year (Jama, 2016;Kridiotis & Swart, 2017). Students who qualify by only failing two of the six modules are then admitted into a six-month learning development programme (LDP), a remediation programme offered in the second semester of the first year.…”

Practise what you teach: Lessons learnt by newly appointed lecturers in medical education

“…[14] This perspective raises the question of whether approaches to new academic staff orientation that are more engaging are more effective at helping them learn than the long-established model of transmitting information through presentations and lecture-based models. SA authors Kridiotis and van Wyk [15] included a peer-and educationist-evaluated microteaching experience in an orientation programme. The engagement between the group of newly appointed academic staff members (peers) and educationists through evaluating the microteaching sessions and presenting verbal feedback in the larger group led to reflections, stating that the activity was valuable, as the group subsequently felt more confident as lecturers and more competent to implement newly acquired teaching skills.…”

“…In the 2013 course, consideration was given to including some factors recommended by Chauvin et al [7] This was approached as follows: (i) 'explicit faculty commitment and support' was ensured by including the dean of the faculty in the course, giving a word of welcome and a presentation on the faculty and university structures; (ii) 'opportunities to build collegial relationships' was elicited by demonstrating simulation and a training method -the course participants simulated patients in role-plays, coupled with discussions and debriefing activities; it included an interactive microteaching activity, which was found to be successful in this setting; [15] and (iii) distributing to each participant a resource file containing copies of all the PowerPoint presentations, additional notes, articles or other interesting sources and information regarding faculty development services, thereby ensuring 'easily accessible information resources' .…”

“…[23] Reflections of our course participants indicated that they found the experience enjoy able. [15] Furthermore, their opinion of the activity was that it offered definite benefits through learning from others and obtaining constructive feedback:…”