The Master Teacher Program

The University of Wisconsin - Department of Family Medicine Office of Medical Student Education (Predoc) announces the beginning of a new faculty development program that started in February. The Master Teacher Program is a competency-based faculty development program that is designed to train faculty who will become learning facilitators in the Primary Care Clerkship (PCC). The goal of the program is to help fellows explore and enhance their skills in assessment and in facilitating learning in the PCC. The Master Teacher Program will consist of five half-day interactive seminars and other training situations, such as participation in student assessment. This program creates a community of learners who educate and support each other through the discussion of class and project ideas.

Program topics include:

• Applying adult learning principles to promote active learning.
  
  
• Evaluating and documenting teaching skills using a portfolio, clinical scenarios and videotaping.
  
  
• Analysis of PCC course design and discussion of PCC objectives and learning outcomes
  
  
• Evaluating the competency of learners and giving feedback.
  
  
• Teaching in a variety of settings--classroom, small group and problem-based learning, clinical interactions.
  
  
• Using PDAs and computers in teaching Evidence-Based Medicine and Electronic Health Records.
  
  
• Assessing student learning competencies and performance via the Year-End Professional Skills Assessment (YEPSA) and Objective Structured Clinical Exams (OSCE's).

This year's fellows are Ann Evensen, MD, Stan Livingston, MD, and Nancy Pandhi, MD. The course is being facilitated by Craig Gjerde, PhD, Jim Shropshire, MD and Jake Prunuske, MD, MSPH, with assistance from Jerry Ryan, MD, Doug Smith, MD and Kim Lansing, MD, PhD.

We hope to introduce additional fellows next year. All faculty should have received invitations to the portions of the program that pertain to their work in small group teaching and clinical precepting of medical students. For more information contact Claire Ann Boyce at Claire.Boyce@fammed.wisc.edu.