Interactive Teaching Practices Among Trained and Untrained Medical Educators: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Faculty Development
• Interactive Teaching

Background:

• Competency-based medical curricula require interactive learning during lectures.
• Evidence on faculty training's impact on interactive teaching practices is limited.
• This study compares educators with and without training in medical education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the interactive teaching practices and beliefs of medical educators with varying levels of faculty development.
• To assess the influence of short-term versus long-term educational training on teaching methods.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study of 229 pre-clinical and para-clinical medical educators.
• Data collected on training, perceived use of interactive teaching, preferred methods, difficulty, reasons, and challenges.
• Responses analyzed to compare educators based on faculty development participation.

Main Results:

• Educators with short-term and long-term training reported more frequent use of interactive teaching techniques.
• No significant differences were found between trained and untrained educators in preferred methods, difficulty, reasons, or barriers.
• Both groups showed similar perceptions regarding interactive teaching strategies.

Conclusions:

• Faculty development programs significantly increase the utilization of interactive teaching techniques.
• While perceptions may be similar, training is key to implementing interactive methods.
• Increased use of interactive teaching may stem from multifactorial reasons or the nature of the practice.