Learning is in the facilitation: faculty perspectives with facilitated teaching and learning-recommendations from...

Small group learning is an interactive activity that requires a skilled teacher with the ability to facilitate and debrief. Approximately 250 students from seven health professions were enrolled in a first year interprofessional education course that focused on the importance of communication and collaboration. Weekly faculty debrief sessions were conducted and were utilized to share the teachers perspectives with facilitative teaching as well as for feedback and improvement strategies. Recommendations included linking the learning within the small group sessions back to clinical and professional practice in order to validate the course content and thereby increase student engagement; creation of facilitator guides with specific debrief instructions for the given objectives in order to encourage effective learning dialogue among all participants; and providing faculty with formalized facilitator training as well as debrief strategies in order to attain the skills to better guide student learning.