McKeachie WJ: Teaching Tips - Strategies, Research and Theory for College and
University Teachers. 9th edition, Toronto: DC Heath & Co., 1994. A classic that
has stood the test of time since the first edition in 1951, this book is chock-full of
practical advice for teachers. For example, there are chapters on course preparation,
meeting a class for the first time organising effective discussions, lecturing, tests,
assigning grades, cheating, lab teaching, field work, peer learning, projects, teaching
with cases, simulations, role playing and one-to-one teaching. There are also chapters on
ethics in teaching and classroom research. Finally, there are chapters on motivation,
teaching thinking and teaching values. If you read only one book on this list, read
this one!
Westberg J and Jason H: Collaborative Clinical Education - the Foundation of
Effective Health Care. New York: Springer Publishing Co., 1993.This is well
written and comprehensive. It gives evidence-based recommendations for various aspects of
clinical teaching - orienting learners, serving as role models, teaching skills, asking
questions, encouraging self-evaluation, providing constructive feedback, evaluating
learners and assessing and enhancing your teaching. Checklists in each section are
invaluable.
Newble D and Cannon R: A Handbook for Medical Teachers. 3rd edition, Boston:
Kluwer Academic Press, 1994. This is an easy read - very down-to-earth advice about
lecturing, teaching in small groups, making presentations, teaching skills, planning a
course, assessing students, helping students learn and where to find more information
about medical education.
Stewart MA, Brown JB, Weston WW, McWhinney IR, McWilliam CL, Freeman TR: Patient-Centred
Medicine - Transforming the Clinical Method. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications1995.
This text outlined the patient-centred clinical method develop at the University of
Western Ontario since 1982. It also includes several chapters on how to teach the method
and chapters describing research on the method.
Quirk ME: How to Learn and How to Teach in Medical School - A Learner-Centered
Approach. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1994. Part I of this well-written
book looks at the process of learning and reviews how students learn from reading, from
listening and taking notes and from observing the patient. Quirk provides excellent advice
about how to enhance learning by each method. This section concludes with a discussion of
self-directed learning. In Part II, the author reviews the teachers’ roles -
recognizing and reducing the impact of individual learning differences; identifying
learning problems; fostering enthusiasm and motivation; planning learning experiences;
teacher-student interactions; coaching in computer-assisted instructions. Part III
explores the medical school environment - establishing a learner-centered environment and
revitalizing the curriculum.
Neighbour R: The Inner Apprentice - An Awareness-Centred Approach to Vocational
Training for General Practice. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992. This is a
fascinating and highly original approach to teaching. Neighbour presents a powerful and
often entertaining challenge to the dominant paradigm in medical education - teaching as
telling - and presents an alternative - teaching as awakening and education as a quest.
This book is full of wonderful insights about the teacher-learner relationship and
deserves to be read slowly, discussed with colleagues and then read again. But brace
yourself for fundamental questions about your current way of thinking.
Havelock P, Hasler J, Flew R, McIntyre D, Schofield T, Toby J: Professional Education
for General Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. The authors review the
tasks of clinical teaching (with many parallels to patient care), spell out the
characteristics of adult learners, review how to construct a curriculum in a general
practice setting and discuss how to assess the learners. They elaborate on various
teaching methods, the teacher-learner relationship and how to evaluate the teaching. The
authors share many valuable pearls of wisdom from their many years in teaching practices.
Boice R: The New Faculty Member - Supporting and Fostering Professional Development. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992. This is a gem - very practical advice for new faculty
members about how to get started and keep going. It gives good advice about how to
organize your work to be able to write effectively. Also helpful are suggestions about
forming effective networks of colleagues.
Bland CJ et al: Successful Faculty in Academic Medicine - Essential skills and
How to Acquire Them. New York: Springer, 1990. This book provides a comprehensive
description of the skills of successful faculty members and how one can go about achieving
them. Bland catalogues these skills into five domains: education, administration,
research, writing, professional academic skills.
Tiberius: Small Group Teaching: A Troubleshooting Guide. Toronto: OISE, 1990.
This is an eminently practical little book on small group teaching using a diagnostic
approach to analysing and handling common problems in learning groups.
Schon: Educating the Reflective Practitioner - Toward a New Design for Teaching and
Learning in the Professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1987. Schon argues that
professionals tackle real-life problems using an approach he calls reflection-in-action
rather than the traditional approach of applying basic science to well formed problems
with clear-cut answers which he calls technical rationality. In real-life, problems are
messy, often involve considerable uncertainty and value conflict and every situation is
unique so that the established theories do not apply. He argues that our curricula need to
reflect the realities of practice and prepare our graduates for these messy indeterminate
situations. Everyone involved in medical school curricula should read this book.
Neufeld VR and Norman GR: Assessing Clinical Competence. New York: Springer,
1985. A well-researched handbook of everything you ever wanted to know about evaluation.
Davis DA and Fox RD: The Physician as Learner - Linking Research to Practice. Chicago:
American Medical Association, 1994. The best book on continuing education ever! Also, it
provides a valuable synopsis of the literature on self-directed learning, the adoption of
innovation, the assessment of learning needs and a summary of the research on the
effectiveness of CME.
Wright WA and Associates: Teaching Improvement Practices - Successful Strategies for
Higher Education. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing, 1995. One of the few books to focus
entirely on faculty development - a goldmine of information and Canadian too. It has
chapters on preparing faculty as tutors for PBL, improving laboratory teaching, faculty
development workshops, using the teaching portfolio, preparing the faculty of the future
to teach and the development of new and junior faculty. A "must read" for anyone
with responsibility for faculty development.
Neufeld V, Khanna S, Bramble L, Simpson J: Leadership for Change in the Education of
Health Professionals. Maastricht: Network of Community-Oriented Educational
Institutions for Health Sciences, 1995. A small, very readable (but very expensive) book
about the new paradigm of leadership and how this relates to changes in medical school
organization and curriculum planning. Faculty development is a leadership function and
consequently faculty developers must have a clear understanding of leadership.
Menges RJ, Mathis BC: Key Resources on Teaching, Learning, Curriculum and Faculty
Development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1988. This is an exhaustive annotated
bibliography of material written on these topics and is invaluable if you are looking for
more to read on any of these subjects.
