"Then you get a teacher" - Guidelines for excellence in teaching
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Date
2007
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Routledge
Abstract
Background: Current literature calls for the explicit teaching to health-science educators of the skills, knowledge and dispositions
that are required for successful teaching in higher education.
Aims: This paper draws on evidence from an Oral Hygiene department at a South African university in order to
illustrate these teaching-competency needs. Insights from the evidence are synthesised with current literature regarding best
teaching practice, in support of an appropriate framework for the development of teaching competencies to health-science
educators.
Description: A qualitative approach, using a case study, was adopted. The cohort comprised fifteen students in the first-year Oral
Hygiene cohort class and the ten educators who taught their programme. Data was collected through semistructured interviews
and open-ended questionnaires. The topics that emerged from the combined analysis of the interviews and the questionnaires
were organised into a grid so that common themes could be identified. Current literature regarding teaching and learning was used
as a framework for interpreting the empirical evidence, from which three categories emerged. The first category included
suggestions from students regarding what to do to teach better. A review of the literature indicates that these competencies can be
effectively learnt from self-help guides. The second category included requests for skills development. Literature review suggests
that these might effectively be learnt from single-event workshops facilitated by more able peers. Responses in the final category
highlighted the need for an underpinning theory of teaching and learning, and signalled the need for a more theoretically
grounded and detailed approach to teacher development.
Conclusion: The framework developed from the empirical study and current literature makes it possible for individual clinical
teachers, and staff developers, to construct teaching-competency development plans that are pertinent to individual teachers’
needs, relevant and practical, educationally sound, and cost-effective in terms of time and effort.
Description
Keywords
Health sciences education, Teacher development, Teaching competences
Citation
McMillan, W. (2007) "Then you get a teacher" - Guidelines for excellence in teaching. Medical Teacher, 29:e209 - e218