A pilot study designed to acquaint medical educators with basic pedagogic principles

Faculty development activities in medical schools regularly target teaching behaviours but rarely address basic pedagogic principles underlying those behaviours. Although many teachers have an intuitive or tacit knowledge of basic pedagogic principles, overt knowledge of fundamental educational principles is rare.

We conducted a short-term pilot study designed to transform teachers' tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge of pedagogic principles. We hypothesized that conscious awareness of these principles will positively influence their teaching effectiveness.

The intervention included a workshop, provision of a workbook on pedagogic principles and free access to educational consultants. For the intervention, we chose a purposive sample of experienced teachers at our medical school.

Evaluation of the impact of the intervention using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews revealed three notable findings; 1. Participants were surprised to discover the existence of an extensive body of pedagogic science underlying teaching and learning. 2. They were enthusiastic about the intervention and expressed interest in learning more about basic pedagogic principles. 3. The knowledge acquired had an immediate impact on their teaching.