Oh dear Adrian. Where to start?

Instructor courses DO NOT teach how to become a teacher. How can they make
someone a teacher in just 2-3 days???? I have spent two years doing a
diploma in education and even then that hasn't taught me how to teach.

The Instructor course is designed to guide people about the methods that we
like to use on Provider Courses. It also INTRODUCES people to the basics of
educational theory. Most importantly, it allows us to highlight the
strengths that the candidates already have in the way that they teach. We
also guide people away from bad techniques (e.g. teaching by humiliation,
negative feedback etc).

One of my favourite quotes is from Adams in 1907, "A teacher affects
eternity. He can never tell where his influence stops". Hence good teachers
perpetuate good teaching. Likewise for bad teachers. How many of us started
out teaching the way we were taught at medical school? ("Teaching" ward
rounds, lectures, didactic small group work where we bore them all and tell
them stuff for an hour). How many are STILL teaching like that?

Some corrections, Adrian. SET, dialogue and closure. The strongest evidence
for this is COMMON SENSE! Also, the first stage of the 4 stage technique for
teaching is REAL TIME not silent run through. There is good evidence for
this technique. The real time run through allows the candidate to
concentrate on good practice and gives them a framework to base upon when
you start describing the process in greater detail. Likewise with questions
before summary. Your group are most likely to remember the last thing they
hear in a session. Would you rather they go away with the pedantic question
ringing in their ears or the take home message you would rather they hear? I
can't immediately produce a reference to a paper that supports this....but
maybe our society is getting too preoccupied with the stuff that is
published in "peer reviewed" journals as opposed to common sense!

Lastly, I totally agree with the shift of medical school training towards
better communication. After all, what is the commonest cause for patient
complaint and hence the time consuming process of investigating these
complaints???? However, everything has to be of a balance and basic sciences
are still important.

Regards

Andy




-----Original Message-----
From: Accident and Emergency Academic List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Adrian Fogarty
Sent: 14 November 2002 00:51
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Decline of Anatomy

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Cartwright"

> Again I have to disagree. The instructor courses aim
> to get people up to a basic standard and avoid some of
> the mistakes. So we tell people to use eye contact,
> ask questions, get people involved, use visual aids
> properly (no crowded slides, appropriate colours
> etc.), allow time for questions etc.

Ah, but can you explain "silent run through" or "questions before lecture
summary" Fred? What joker dreamt this stuff up? And where is the evidence?
That's a rhetorical question by the way ('cause there isn't any...).

AF

P.S. Stephen Hughes has a lot to answer for, didn't he start this dammed
thread in the first place?