Approach to Teaching

I have always admired those teachers whose passion and aptitude for teaching have fuelled my own dedication to learning. My appreciation for their work had sparked an interest in teaching as early as high school, but by that time I had already decided on medicine. However, my understanding of the potential roles of a physician was limited, and my active participation in medical education has led to countless opportunities to act as a teacher. It is fitting that my persistent zeal for medicine and education is being realized and mutually applied towards an academic career, and humbling to learn that I am similarly impacting the learning of others through my work as an educator.

 

While describing education as an empowering gift may earn me criticism, I do believe that education is a scarce resource at any level, within and between regions, including those in which I have trained. Thus, I feel privileged to have interacted with those teachers and students as part of educational experiences that others have not had, and this perception is what I offer as a learner, and ultimately, as an educator. I enjoy making the most of teaching opportunities that are made available to me, and wish to provide similar enjoyable opportunities to others. At the same time, I hope that my students will have a similar attitude towards learning, or that I may be able to impress this appreciation and enthusiasm for education upon them.

 

It is hard to articulate why I enjoy medical education so much, but in clarifying my interest in medicine, similar patterns become apparent. Creating trusting relationships, built through dedication, compassion, and communication, is central to both. I love to collaborate with others and arrive at similar understandings, as well as create new narratives, whenever either is warranted. Finally, the science of teaching and medicine continually motivates one to learn and strive for improvement in both the self and others. I undoubtedly continue to learn from and be encouraged by those that I teach, and wish to train and mentor others.

 

Reflecting on how best to achieve this has led me to this program. While learning from mentors and past experiences have been helpful strategies, many curiosities remain, including means of balancing optimal patient care with clinical teaching, adapting to the various individual learning styles that I will inevitably encounter, and designing evaluation methods that best promote and reflect skill and knowledge acquisition. I hope to tackle such issues as part of the degree training, so that I become a more effective teacher, and learn how to ask and answer the questions that will advance the teaching of medicine.

 

There are two sections to this aspect of the portfolio. In the first, I will clarify some of my philosophical assumptions pertaining to medical education, as well as education on the whole. In the latter, I will extend this philosophy further to the context of medical education, by examining my goals as an educator, and how I have and/or will continue to strive to achieve them.