Teaching and Supervision Skills

Workshops

The following interactive workshops provide members of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry with the knowledge, skills and strategies to become more effective and accomplished teachers and supervisors.

You may view the calendar of upcoming workshops and then click on individual course links to register, available on the calendar. Or you may contact the office by email at fomdfdev@ualberta.ca. Additionally, watch for emails from the Office of Faculty Development for new workshop offerings.

Classroom-based / Non-clinical

The workshop on active learning provides an interactive learning experience on integrating active learning and online learning tools in your teaching. The session will be facilitated through card-based activities (cards will be provided through email) and group-oriented tasks.
The three-part, interactive Clinical Reasoning Workshop series covers theoretical concepts as related to clinical reasoning in medical education and provides participants with practical strategies and tools to teach and assess clinical reasoning in their different learners.
Curriculum design is a process to determine the what, how, and why of learning expectations. This session will highlight curriculum design including what should be included (identification of the learning objectives), why the material should be included (linking the information to the overall blueprint), and how it can be taught (linking the objectives to teaching and assessment strategies).  Using Kern’s 6-step approach to curriculum design, this workshop will model the process, providing opportunities to apply this approach to a topic of your choice.
This workshop aims at getting teachers to learn strategies for question development for their own respective exams and/or the skills to write MCQ questions for different contexts.
This workshop will introduce participants to some concepts of simulation-based education and provide ideas on how it could be used in their own educational contexts.

Workplace-based / Clinical

This workshop is divided into two 2-hour sessions. Session 1 introduces teaching techniques that maximize teaching in the busy workplace environment. Session 2 focuses on more difficult situations and how to give effective, actionable feedback.
This workshop starts with self-assessment, moves to online modules, followed up with a group session covering some case studies and discussion on possible ways to deal with commonly occurring issues related to graduate education. The focus for these discussions will be integrating "Student-Centered Supervision” in the training model inherent in biomedical research.
To be an effective Peer-Consultant, training in observation, feedback skills and techniques are provided through a structured and standardized program, with the goal to build better teachers, the Peer Consultation program enables a teacher (peer) to act as a consultant to another. You can obtain feedback on your teaching skills and methods to enhance your teaching practice, optimize your bedside and classroom teaching and gain feedback giving skills.
This interactive workshop will cover many of the time management skills outlined in the book "The Time Management Guide" by Dr. Hema Patel and Dr. Derek Puddester. Given we know you want to spend your time on important activities, you will be pleased to know that 93% of participants felt this workshop was a valuable use of their time.

Additional Resources

Centre for Teaching and Learning

Additional resources are available at the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL).

Longitudinal Teaching Skills

For longitudinal professional development in a number of health professions education (HPE) areas, please see the Teaching Scholars Program (TSP) courses offered by the IDEAS Office for faculty (all types), trainees, and staff in the College of Health Sciences.

Classroom-based / Non-Clinical

  • Active Learning Cards
  • Clinical Reasoning
  • Curriculum Development
  • Multiple Choice Questions Writing
  • Simulation

Workplace-based / Clinical

  • Clinical Teaching
  • Graduate Student Supervision
  • Peer Consultation of Clinical Teaching Mentorship, Wellness & Professionalism
  • Time Management

Centre for Teaching and Learning


Peer Consultation Program

Goal: Enhance reflective teaching practice to improve teaching skills and learner experience in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry.

Objectives:

  • Improve and share best teaching skills
  • Improve learner experience and enhance learner recruitment
  • Develop and support a community of teachers who are skilled in observing and providing feedback to other teachers.

Why Peer-Consult?

Clinical and classroom teaching is integral to the mission of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta. The faculty members are responsible for teaching learners at a variety of stages (undergraduate, postgraduate, graduate) and in multiple venues. Commonly, evaluation and feedback for such teaching are not received in a timely manner for the teacher to make meaningful changes, and are limited to variably submitted reports from learners, and "teaching awards".

Teachers can observe and provide feedback to other teachers on their teaching skills. If performed effectively, this can provide valuable support for continuous professional development, be included in overall assessment of teaching, and have a positive impact on learners. Peer-review of another's teaching is akin to a consultation, and consists of formally observing a teaching activity, followed by a timely, reflective, constructive and consolidative feedback session. We have adopted the peer-review model, in which teachers observe each other, using a set of mutually agreed upon "rules of engagement" and without power differential or judgment, and with an anticipation of mutual learning, discovery, and community building.

Peer-Consultation for Teaching

Trained peer consultants are available to observe and provide feedback to all teachers who request this service. The program also includes evaluation of its utility and impact on teachers as a measure of long term outcome. Currently the program offers Peer-Consultation for clinical teaching. It is in active collaboration with the University's Centre for Teaching and Learning and is presently expanding Peer-Consultation to other settings of teaching such as small and large group classrooms.

Workshops

3-hour workshops are held several times per year to promote understanding of the Peer-Consultation process.

Peer-Consultation Training

To be an effective Peer-Consultant, training in observation and feedback skills and techniques is provided through a structured and standardized program.

If you are a teacher wishing to have your teaching observed or interested in becoming a Peer-Consultant, please contact

Additional Resources

Additional resources are available at the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL).

Manjula Gowrishankar, MD
Director, Peer-Consultation Program
manjula@ualberta.ca