Four Years of Experience Using Problem-Based Learning as a Platform to Develop Student Teaching Skills: A Preliminary Report

Abstract

Introduction: A graduating medical student should be competent in both teaching and communication skills. This concept is supported by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the Association of American Medical Colleges. Our study describes how we utilized problem-based learning as a platform for developing student teaching skills and to examine preliminary outcomes. Methods: Since 2013, third-year medical students at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine have participated in a mandatory problem-based learning course in parallel to their clinical rotations. During the course orientation students have been led through interactive sessions on writing learning objectives and methods for effective micro-teaching sessions. During seven subsequent sessions, trained faculty members have assessed and provided narrative comments on students' "Ability to Teach Peers" using an anchored developmental scale rubric. Data from four academic years were available for analysis. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to test differences between the initial and final sessions. Results: At the initial session, 39.0% (n=147) received ratings of "mastering." By the final session, 62.6% (n=236) received ratings of "mastering." Conclusion: Our preliminary work demonstrates that a brief orientation to micro-teaching followed by repeated mandatory practice and feedback within our problem-based learning curriculum may serve to build students' teaching skills.

Keywords

• teaching skills
• medical students
• problem-based learning
• feedback
• peer-teaching