A Model Curriculum for Developing Teaching Competencies in Future Medical Educators

Abstract

The Advanced Teaching in Gross Anatomy elective course is designed to help second-year students pursuing an anatomy master’s degree to develop expertise in teaching. A key innovation allows student educators (SEs) to develop core teaching competencies in an authentic classroom setting by offering the elective concurrently with a first-year graduate course in gross anatomy. Each curricular component targets one or more teaching competencies: content knowledge, learner-centeredness, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism and role modeling, practice-based reflection, and systems-based practice. Readings, seminars, and interactive and application-based activities such as the development and delivery of a regional anatomy lecture with associated learning objectives and assessment tool, creation and delivery of an active learning review, and production of a teaching philosophy statement are used to introduce and apply evidence-based educational strategies, while also situating future educators within the larger systems of anatomy and medical education today. Iterative multi-source feedback and deliberate practice skills are modeled and applied throughout the elective. From 2014 to 2016, 11 SEs completed the elective; 82% returned pre- and post-course surveys. Self-reported confidence in eight educational skills significantly increased after the course (p < 0.01), demonstrating the educational impact of the elective. Data collected from teaching evaluations indicate the high quality of the lectures and active learning reviews by the SEs. The curriculum model could be easily adapted to train future educators at different levels of their career (i.e., master’s, doctoral, post-doctoral) across all sub-fields of anatomical sciences and other basic medical sciences. Widespread adoption of this model curriculum in science graduate program would expand the educational training available to future medical educators and over time, improve the quality of medical education.