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III. Teaching Skills

  1. Peer Review
    • Colleagues
    • Departmental committees
    • Supervisor evaluations
  2. Learner Review
    • Systematic student and/or graduate reviews
    • Index of popularity of electives
  3. Videotapes of teaching

III. Teaching Skills Examples

Associate Professor (Clinical Track)

I am involved in teaching at many levels. I help teach first-year medical students a screening musculoskeletal examination. This is a 2-hour workshop given to half of the class one day and half of the class another day during which they practice musculoskeletal exam skills on each other. I also give a one-hour lecture on low back pain to first year students.

I participate in a clinician-mentor course every year for second-year medical students. Students practice taking histories and perform physical examinations on volunteer patients, present the patients, write up their patients and identify, research and present a 1-3 page learning objective about their patient. I hear all the presentations, review the write-ups, observe their examinations and facilitate the learning objectives. Once during the learning period, the student will have their history and physical examination videotaped which we review and critique together. The total time involved is approximately 50 hours per year. I give three 30-minute lectures every year to second year medical students on osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia and vasculitis. I also lead two 90-minute small group sessions with second year medical students. During these sessions, we review musculoskeletal vocabulary, how to distinguish inflammatory versus noninflammatory arthropathies, patterns of joint involvement as a clue to diagnosis, polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis.

From 1996 through 2000, I taught approximately 15-20 third-year medical students a year in a mentoring environment in the rheumatology outpatient clinic. The student sees my patients, presents the patients to me, picks a patient to write up and identifies a learning issue to review that pertains to their patient.

I teach approximately 8-10 fourth-year medical students in a mentoring environment in the clinic. The circumstances are similar to those described above for the third year students but involve higher expectations for efficiency, knowledge base and self-study. These students take part in the integrated rheumatology curriculum for those rotating through rheumatology as described above. During their rotation, I also give 6-7 one-hour didactic lectures a month on lupus, osteoarthritis, laboratory tests in rheumatology, infectious arthritis, arthrocentesis and low back pain .

I teach approximately 20-30 Internal Medicine and Orthopedic residents in a mentoring environment in the clinic as described above for the fourth year medical students. I give 3 one-hour didactic lectures on low back pain, infectious arthritis and crystalline arthritis as part of the Internal Medicine Core Curriculum. I provided a workshop on arthrocentesis to the residents annually as part of the core curriculum. I attend internal medicine morning report once a week to guide general internal medicine discussions as well as provide rheumatologic expertise to the discussions if appropriate.

I am also involved in continuing medical education (CME) for physicians in practice and other health-care professionals. I gave a one-hour Grand Rounds for the Internal Medicine Department in 1997 on polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis. I gave a one-hour lecture on enteropathic arthritis to the Crohn’s Colitis Society in 1996. I gave a one-hour lecture on joint injections to a family practice CME meeting in 1996. I gave a one-hour lecture on the approach to a patient with a positive ANA to the Iowa Physician Assistants Society annual CME meeting in 1997. I gave a one-hour lecture followed by a 3-hour workshop on joint injections for the Iowa Physician Assistants Society annual CME meeting in 1998, 1999 and 2000. I helped teach a 3-day workshop on the examination of the musculoskeletal system at the National American College of Physicians meeting in 1999 and 2000. I gave 4 one-hour lectures on nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to various Iowa Medical Societies in 1999. I gave a one-hour lecture followed by a 3-hour workshop on joint injections for the American Academy of Family Physicians State Meeting in 2000. I gave one-hour lectures on chronic pain management to the Linn County Pharmacy Society and at the Arthritis Foundation (Iowa Chapter) Arthritis Frontiers meeting in 2000. I gave a one-hour lecture on new therapies in rheumatoid arthritis at the University of Iowa’s Update in Internal Medicine meeting in 2000.

My cumulative average evaluation score for lectures, conferences and workshops (1999 – 2000) is 4.34 on a 5 point schedule. The cumulative average evaluation score for lectures, conferences and workshops given by others at the same time as mine is 3.53. My cumulative average evaluation score by students, residents and fellows (2000) is 4.83 on a 5 point scale. I do not have comparative data for other teaching physicians in the Department of Internal Medicine. My cumulative average Peer evaluation score (2000) is 4.77 on a 5 point scale. I do not have comparative data for other teaching physicians in the Department of Internal Medicine.

Professor (Tenure Track)

My teaching history at the University of Iowa is as follows (not including 2 or fewer guest lectures):

Undergraduate Teaching

  1. Immunology section of General Microbiology (20% of course): 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1993-94. Student number ranged from 73-110.
  2. Laboratory research for credit (Honors or Problems in Microbiology) to 8 Microbiology majors from 1991 to the present.
  3. Four students for summer research projects from either the Howard Hughes or NSF summer programs (1990, 1995, 1996, 1997).

Graduate Teaching

  1. Advanced Immunology/Immunology I: 1991-92 (40% of course and Course Director), 1993-94 (40% of course and Course Director), 1994-95 (25% of course and Course Director), 1995-96 (25% of course), 1996-97 (25% of course), 1997-98 (30% of course and Course Director). Student number ranged from 12 to 25; students from 10 different Depts./Programs are currently enrolled in the course.
  2. Advanced Topics in Immunology: 1989-90 (25% of course), 1996-97 (33% of course and Course Director). Student number ranged from 10 to 11.
  3. Graduate Student research rotations: In addition to the 7 graduate students who have completed or are working towards graduate degrees in my lab, I have supervised research rotations for 4 graduate students in Microbiology, 3 in the Molecular Biology Program, and 4 in the Immunology Program.

Medical Student Teaching

  1. 1. MS1 small group case analysis based on Immunology lecture material: 1995-96 (6 hours of discussion plus writing one of the sample cases), 1996-97 (6 hours of discussion plus writing one of the sample cases). 14 students.
  2. Summer research rotations: one MS1 (1994) and one MSTP (1995) student.

The following evaluative documents of my teaching are included in the Appendix:

  1. Student course evaluations from General Microbiology.
  2. Course/instructor student evaluations from Advanced Immunology/Immunology I.
  3. Peer evaluations of teaching for Immunology I.
  4. Student evaluations for my section of Advanced Topics in Immunology.

The Educator's Portfolio (1) from the Medical College of Wisconsin will be used as a model.

References

  1. Simpson DE, Beecher AC, Lindemann JC, Morzinski JA. The Educator's Portfolio. 4th Edition. Medical College of Wisconsin. 1998.

Teaching Development