Preparing teachers for competency-based medical education: Fundamental teaching activities

The move to competency-based medical education has created new challenges for medical teachers, including the need to reflect on and further develop their own competencies as teachers. Guidance is needed to ensure comprehensive and coherent programs of faculty development to meet the needs of teachers.

The Working Group on Faculty Development of the College of Family Physicians of Canada developed a new concept, Fundamental Teaching Activities (FTAs), to describe the day-to-day work of teachers. These activities are intended to guide teacher professional development. Using task analysis and iterative reviews with teachers and educational leaders, these FTAs were organized into a framework for teachers to identify the actions involved in various teaching tasks, and to reflect on their teaching performance and next steps in personal development.

In addition to use by teachers for personal development, the framework is being employed to guide the development of comprehensive faculty development offerings and curriculum, and to organize the beginnings of a national repository of teaching tools.

Designed to support and aid teachers and those charged with faculty development, the Fundamental Teaching Activities Framework holds promise for all teachers in health sciences education.