Growing Teachers: using electives to teach senior residents how to teach.

Overview

OBJECTIVE: Many physicians teach but few are taught how to teach, particularly through pedagogical interventions. The authors describe a method for teaching curriculum development and classroom skills to psychiatric residents using an elective in the fourth postgraduate year. METHODS: An elective in pedagogy provided a framework for the planning, teaching, and evaluation phases of developing a new course. RESULTS: The elective resulted in four new, well-received courses and encouraged two participants to pursue careers in academic psychiatry. CONCLUSION: The elective helped residents achieve essential teaching skills, foster mentoring relationships with senior teaching faculty, and develop as future junior faculty members.

Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry Journal