Piloting a first-year resident-as-teacher workshop to foster evidence-based teaching

Residents function as important educators of dental students; however, they often have limited training in educational best-practices. Resident-as-teacher programs have been designed and implemented in other health professions to prepare residents to teach in clinic and classroom settings. In this research, we describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of a 2-day workshop for first-year advanced dental residents.

The program engaged residents in techniques to: (1) foster psychological safety, (2) use the cognitive apprenticeship framework, (3) deliver quality feedback, and (4) conduct effective didactic instruction. Nineteen first-year residents attended 2 four-hour workshops in July 2019. The impact of the program was evaluated using Kirkpatrick's model, which included participant reactions, learning, and self-reported behaviors.

Most residents (at least 83.3%) reported the value and quality of the workshop was high or very high. With regard to knowledge, residents had statistically significant higher scores after the workshop on knowledge questions about cognitive apprenticeship (P < 0.01), feedback strategies (P < 0.05), and classroom instruction techniques (P < 0.05). Resident reported self-efficacy had a statistically significantly increase (P < 0.05) after the workshop in psychological safety, cognitive apprenticeship, and most items related to providing feedback; there were few changes in self-efficacy on classroom instruction strategies.

Overall, a workshop to prepare residents as teachers can improve knowledge and self-efficacy in evidence-based educational practices.