Growing Teachers: using electives to teach senior residents how to teach

Many physicians teach but few are taught how to teach, particularly through pedagogical interventions. The authors describe a method for teaching curriculum development and classroom skills to psychiatric residents using an elective in the fourth postgraduate year.

An elective in pedagogy provided a framework for the planning, teaching, and evaluation phases of developing a new course.

The elective resulted in four new, well-received courses and encouraged two participants to pursue careers in academic psychiatry.

The elective helped residents achieve essential teaching skills, foster mentoring relationships with senior teaching faculty, and develop as future junior faculty members.