Development and implementation of a longitudinal students as teachers program: participant satisfaction and implications for medical student teaching and learning

Abstract

BackgroundTeaching is a key component of medical practice, but medical students receive little formal training to develop their teaching skills. A longitudinal Students as Teachers (SAT) program was created at the University of Toronto to provide medical students with opportunities to acquire an understanding of educational pedagogy and practice teaching early in their medical training. This program was 7-months in duration and consisted of monthly educational modules, practical teaching sessions, feedback, and reflective exercises.MethodsA mixed methods study design was used to evaluate initial outcomes of the SAT program by obtaining the perspectives of 18 second-year medical students. Participants filled out questionnaires at the beginning and end of the 7-month program to indicate their skill level and confidence in teaching. Differences between pre- and post-intervention scores were further explored in a group interview of 5 participants.ResultsParticipants expressed a high degree of satisfaction with the SAT program structure and found the educational modules and practical teaching sessions to be particularly beneficial to their learning. Over the course of the program, there were significant increases in students’ confidence in teaching, and self-perceived teaching capacity and communication skills. Furthermore, participants discussed improvements in their effectiveness as learners.ConclusionsTeaching is a skill that requires ongoing practice. Our results suggest that a longitudinal program consisting of theoretical modules, practical teaching sessions, feedback, and reflective exercises for medical students may improve teaching and communication skills, and equip them with improved learning strategies. This program also provides students with insight into the experience of teaching while holding other academic and clinical responsibilities.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-017-0857-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Developing a novel framework for non-technical skills learning strategies for undergraduates: A systematic review

“…2 shows a remarkable increase in the number of studies available per year since 1980, with a striking increase of 122% between periods 2000–2009 and 2010–2017. Most studies were featured in the Americas (n = 25) [ [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] , [35] , [36] , [37] , [38] , [39] , [40] , [41] , [42] , [43] , [44] , [45] , [46] , [47] , [48] , [49] , [50] ], followed closely by Europe (n = 24) [ [51] , [52] , [53] , [54] , [55] , [56] , [57] , [58] , [59] , [60] , [61] , [62] , [63] , [64] , [65] , [66] , [67] , [68] , [69] , [70] , [71] , [72] , [73] , [74] ]. Specifically, the majority were carried out in the United States (US) (n = 23) [ [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] , [35] , [36] , [37] , [38] , …”

Black Ice: Five ways to get a grip on grouped self-assessments of competence for program evaluation

“…Of the 27 selected reports, 18 studies measured perceived confidence in or comfort with performing certain tasks. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Six studies measured competency or ability, 10,13,[22][23][24][25] two studies measured readiness, 9,16 and five studies e92 lacked sufficient detail to determine what they used. [26][27][28][29][30] Measuring one's willingness to perform a task or one's confidence helps promote reflection of performance 3 but is not the most effective method of evaluating learning or performance.…”

“…According to our analysis, five studies had not used any pre-intervention assessments at all. 5,10,18,22,28 Eighteen studies administered pre-post self-assessments, 4,[6][7][8][9][12][13][14][15][16][17]19,21,23,25,27,29,30 whereas only three studies employed post-intervention retrospective pre-test selfassessments. 11,24,26 One study had employed both pre-intervention pre-test and post-intervention retrospective pre-test self-assessments.…”

“…Of the 27 selected studies, 22 studies used the observable, clearly written, specific learning objectives from the program or intervention in their self-assessments. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][21][22][23][24][25]28,29 Yet, five studies either lacked sufficient details to determine what they used or used topic areas and broad domains instead of learning objectives. 11,20,26,27,30 When selfassessments refer to ambiguous learning objectives, respondents may not be able to accurately interpret what they are expected to assess.…”

Learning ideals: Critical reflections on a near-peer initiative at Leeds

“…Unlike many of the peer-assisted learning initiatives reported in the literature (Tai et al, 2016b;Yeung et al, 2017), our student-tutors are constantly developing their educational knowledge, skills, attitudes, and identities over a full academic year. Furthermore, they receive support for this development from their various medical education modules and their supervision from experienced IDEALS tutors.…”