Educating medical teachers

Abstract

Medical EducationVolume 16, Issue 6 p. 307-308 Free Access Educating medical teachers First published: November 1982 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.1982.tb00941.xAboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat When George Miller was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Uppsala at the 1977 AMEE Conference held there (on the occasion of the University's 500th anniversary), in his address he asked: ‘Does the Association for Medical Education in Europe have a sound plan and a vigorous programme for promoting change in the academic reward system, so that educational endeavours will rank equally with the more conventional biomedical research as a criterion for recognition and advancement? If not, isn't it time to do so?’ He has now written the record (Miller, 1980) of his own notable activities in the field of medical teacher training. He was recruited by Edward Bridge at the University of Buffalo in 1950 to help arouse interest in medical education among the teaching staff. The teaching with which he was concerned evolved into a course of ‘Bedside Teaching for First Year Students’. From this beginning, a Project in Medical Education began in 1955, with Edwin Rosinski in time becoming research director, thus enabling Buffalo medical teaching staff to work with educationalists. In 1961, when the famous book edited by Miller, Teaching and Learning in Medical School, was published, the programme of which it was the outcome, ironically, was ‘moribund, if not dead’. In 1959 Miller had moved to the University of Illinois. In time its office of research in medical education became the Centre for Educational Development. Miller made CED internationally famous when a formal agreement was reached in the early 70s with the World Health Organization, to train medical educationalists and set up Regional Teacher Training Centres (with Illinois the Inter-regional Centre) in many countries. In this way George Miller profoundly influenced medical education on an international scale. Only in Europe was the model of RTTCs not accepted. The British Journal of Medical Education, the forerunner of this journal, commented in an Editorial in March 1972: ‘The World Health Organization's pyramidal structure for medical teacher training is not without its dangers’. The European Office of WHO held a Workshop on the question in Warsaw later in the 70s, and representatives of European medical teachers still did not endorse the regional medical teacher training model. The contrary view was also advocated, that in as many individual medical schools as possible there should be developments in medical teacher training and in medical research. Miller's book meticulously documents the history of the medical education units and their directors which derived from the inspiration, training and direction he provided. He concludes, without in any way minimizing the notable progress he has promoted: ‘If competence as an educator is to assume the importance it deserves in the repertoire of a medical school faculty member, then it must be honoured far more than it is now’. References Miller G. E. (1980) Educating Medical Teachers. Harvard University Press, Cambridge , Massachusetts. Volume16, Issue6November 1982Pages 307-308 ReferencesRelatedInformation