Longitudinal Programs

Longitudinal Programs in Teaching Skills and Curriculum Development

Since 1987, over 600 faculty and fellows from regional medical schools and teaching hospitals have participated in the longitudinal programs. They have found the experience deeply rewarding. Participants have enhanced their skills in teaching and curriculum development, gained increased confidence and satisfaction as clinicians and educators and have grown personally and professionally in the process.

• Teaching Skills
• Curriculum Development
   

A. TEACHING SKILLS
(L. Randol Barker and Karan A. Cole, Co-Directors)

Part I:  Fifteen consecutive Thursdays, 8:30 to noon
            September 8 - December 22, 2011 (prerequisite for Part II)

Part II: Ten consecutive Thursdays, 8:30 to noon
             February 9 - April 12, 2012

Part I:  Core Concepts and Skills

Educational Objectives
After attending this activity, the participant will demonstrate the ability to describe and apply skills related to the following content areas:

• Building a Learning Community: Strategies for Learning and Facilitating and Skills of Dialogue
• Enhancing Professional-Personal Balance
• Providing Effective Feedback
• Small Group Meetings for Learning and/or Decision-Making: Optimizing Decision-Making and Implementing the Stages of Small Group Meetings and Facilitation Participation
• Relationship-Centeredness in the Learning Environment
• Building a Successful Career as a Scholarly Educator
• Presentation Skills
• Quality Improvement Projects

Recurrent Themes

• Personal awareness and growth
• Professionalism and the ‘hidden’ and ‘informal’ curricula
• Being an effective role model
• Multicultural application of concepts
• Balancing professional and personal demands

Part II:  Advanced Concepts and Application
The specific learning objectives of Part I participants who wish to continue in Part II are the basis for a highly individualized curriculum in Part II.

Educational Objectives
After attending this activity, the participant will demonstrate the ability to describe and apply skills related to the following content areas:

• Motivation and empowerment
• Leadership and management
• Cultural competence
• Conflict management
• Formalized brainstorming
• Facilitating small group learning

Learning Methods
Individuals work in small, interdisciplinary groups with highly-trained and committed faculty facilitators in a supportive, stimulating and collegial environment. Participants play a vital and active role in their own learning by identifying learning needs, developing learning plans, regularly assessing their progress and applying learnings to daily experiences. Facilitators and members of the small groups quickly become important resources for each other's learning, while employing such methods as didactic presentations and demonstrations, reading, discussion, personal reflection, writing and storytelling, observation and feedback (audio and videotape review), and skills practice (role play with co-learners, application at one's work setting).
 

B. CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
(David E. Kern, Director)

Wednesdays, 8 a.m. to noon 
September 7, 2011 - June 27, 2012

Course Objectives
By the end of this activity, the participant will demonstrate the ability to:

• Describe and apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to effectively design, implement, and evaluate a curriculum.
• Design, pilot and formulate plans for the implementation of a curriculum in medical education relevant to the needs of their own institution as well as to their own professional career(s).
• Perform the skills necessary for presenting and disseminating their work to the academic community.

Learning Methods
Participants identify a curricular project that is both important and possible to implement in their clinical or academic setting. Groups of two to five participants develop and implement curricula. Each group meets regularly with a highly-trained, committed faculty facilitator, who provides written feedback after each session on material submitted by the group. Small group work is supplemented by work-in-progress, didactic and experimental learning sessions with the total group. Individuals pilot their curricula and present plans for full implementation by the end of the program.