Teaching skills: a school-based special study module

Abstract

educator). Students and faculty members developed and taught the programme. It started with a compulsory introduction forum entitled 'How to best profit from your clerkships', which was followed by an elective programme of five 2-hour interactive workshops addressing the following six themes: oneto-one peer teaching; training in procedural skills; giving feedback; orienting peers in a new clinical environment; interprofessional communication, and reflective practice based on logbook recordings. The programme ended with a formative assessment against predefined criteria during a simulated teaching interaction with a 'standardised peer'. The programme evaluation was based on students' ratings on a 12-item questionnaire (global evaluation, objectives, expectations, usefulness, format, etc.) and their oral feedback at the end of the course. Evaluation of results and impact We implemented the programme in 2006-07 with 16 elective Year 4 students in a 6-year curriculum. All of them successfully reached the predetermined performance levels and impressed examiners during their interactions with standardised peers. Students expressed high levels of satisfaction, both during the oral feedback session and in the evaluation questionnaire (mean range among the tested dimensions 4.1 [standard deviation, SD 0.26] to 4.8 [SD 0.45], on a Likert scale of 1-5, 5 being the highest level). Our first experience was thus encouraging and we are currently offering the programme for a second year, during which three former students have become coaches for the new students. In conclusion, students successfully initiated an undergraduate elective programme providing tools for peer teaching in real clinical practice. Its potential impact on preparing future residents' teaching skills requires further research.

A review of teaching skills development programmes for medical students

“…The reviewed studies were published between the years 2002 and 2013 and represent research from institutions in five different countries. Nine articles were from the USA, seven from the UK, two from Australia and one from each of Germany, and Switzerland …”

“…Their characteristics are summarised in Table . Both studies described outreach programmes in which medical students travelled to community schools to teach health‐related topics to secondary school students …”

“…The participating medical students evaluated the programme using online surveys. The programme was valued among participants for ‘the development of teaching skills and practice’ …”

“…Only three of these workshop studies specifically noted that direct feedback on performance was given by supervising faculty staff . The medical students in both outreach programmes received feedback from participating high school teachers …”

“…In this way, medical students can begin contributing to the overall health of their communities long before they graduate. The reviewed outreach programmes were also able to improve the self‐perceived teaching skills of participating medical students …”