Maturing through awareness: An exploratory study into the development of educational competencies, identity, and mission of medical educators

Medical Teacher, vol. 46, pp. 117–125

Abstract

PURPOSE: Faculty development in learning-centred medical education aims to help faculty mature into facilitators of student learning, but it is often ineffective. It is unclear how to support educators' maturation sustainably. We explored how and why medical educators working in learning-centred education, more commonly referred to as student-centred education, mature over time. METHODS: We performed a qualitative follow-up study and interviewed 21 senior physician-educators at two times, ten years apart. A hierarchical model, distinguishing four educator phenotypes, was employed to deductively examine educators' awareness of the workplace context, their educational competencies, identity, and 'mission,' i.e. their source of personal inspiration. Those educators who grew in awareness, as measured by advancing in educator phenotype, were re-interviewed to inductively explore factors they perceived to have guided their maturation. RESULTS: A minority of the medical educators grew in awareness of their educational qualities over the 10-year study period. Regression in awareness did not occur. Maturation as an educator was perceived to be linked to maturation as a physician and to engaging in primarily informal learning opportunities. CONCLUSIONS: Maturation of medical educators can take place, but is not guaranteed, and appears to proceed through a growth in awareness of, successively, educational competencies, identity, and mission. At all stages, maturation is motivated by the task, identity, and mission as a physician.

Authors 5

1. Marleen W. Ottenhoff- de Jonge corresponding Aachen Department of Public Health and Primary Care (PHEG)

   Leiden University · Leiden University Medical Center

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands

2. Iris van der Hoeven Aachen Department of Public Health and Primary Care (PHEG)

   Leiden University · Leiden University Medical Center

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands

3. Neil Gesundheit

   Stanford Medicine · Stanford University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

4. Anneke W. M. Kramer Aachen Department of Public Health and Primary Care (PHEG)

   Leiden University · Leiden University Medical Center

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands

5. Roeland Matthijs van der Rijst Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Graduate School of Teaching, ICLON Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands