Results of Teaching

The concept of a negative feedback loop is central to many physiologic systems in order to maintain homeostasis. Negative feedback, however, has the similar potential to inhibit or discourage educators from continuing their activities to improve and teaching and learning. This is why I believe that it is essential for educators to view any feedback as instructive and insightful, and use it as a driving force for further development.

 

There are many means by which someone may be judged as an educator. While much of my responsibilities and scholarship in medical education can be viewed as professional contributions to teaching and learning, it is hard to gauge what the objective impact has been on my students. Part of the challenge is that so many different individuals shape one’s medical education, thus teasing out the interactions that were beneficial along the way becomes difficult. When considering the impact of my teaching on others thus far, however, my largest body of evidence comes from the feedback, evaluations, and reviews by others. Because I believe that adult learners ultimately wish to identify and respond to their individual learning needs, I similarly place great value in their comments in helping provide insight into my actual performance as an educator. In particular, unfavourable reviews, particularly when they are clearly articulated, can be far more powerful and insightful ways of establishing my limits and stimulating further teaching activities.

 

Please select the buttons on the right for documentation of results of my previous efforts in medical education.