A review by Dr Shivaa Ramsewak
Teaching is, to varying extents, part of the day to day work of doctors, with memorable teachers often having significant influence over a doctor’s early career path. It is therefore unsurprising that most job applications ask about teaching experience, making it not only a desirable, but necessary skill for junior doctors to develop. Medical schools don’t always prepare graduates for a role as a teacher and so many junior doctors seek to learn from experienced seniors, embark on courses, or try to use feedback from their own teaching experience to develop their teaching skills.
As a junior doctor early on in my career, I have enjoyed my experiences in the role of a teacher, from impromptu bedside teaching for medical students to more formal didactic teaching. Preparing for such sessions has not only allowed me an opportunity to get feedback on my teaching skills, but also to help with my own learning as preparing for them helps me to understand more about the topic of interest and identify gaps in my knowledge. I am therefore always looking for ways to improve my teaching skills and hoped that Oxford Medical Training’s Teach the Teacher Online course would help me to do so.
The course is divided into several sections, which you are able to dip in and out of at your own pace. In all, it takes about three hours to complete, which includes the time taken for offline activities to help you develop your own training projects. I found it most logical to go through each section in order and then revisit the sections I wanted to focus more on. The course starts by describing the theory and psychological approaches behind different learning styles, then goes on to setting aims and objectives, tools for designing and delivering training activities and finally, assessing the success of a training activity and feedback. I liked that there was a variety of teaching styles used – from theory, to short clips, to MCQs. Examples are used throughout the course to highlight different points and bring everything together. There are also opportunities utilising videos with actors to critique goal setting and delivery of a teaching session, which was a good way to consolidate the theory provided.
In addition to providing ways to improve and reflect upon my own teaching sessions, I found that this course not only helped me to think about my own teaching style and ability, but also how I set aims and objectives for my own learning and my personal learning style – both things which I think will be useful in setting personal development plans and in studying for the many assessments and exams to come. If you’re a reflective learner like me, or indeed a theorist or pragmatist, you could use this online course as a great alternative to the usual 2-day face to face Teaching the Teachers courses, allowing you to explore different sections and work through them in your own time. Alternatively it can be used as an adjunct to a face to face Teaching the Teachers course to further consolidate your training as a teacher.
