A framework of teaching competencies across the medical education continuum.

BACKGROUND: The quality of teachers in higher education is subject of increasing attention, as exemplified by the development and implementation of guidelines for teacher qualifications at Universities in The Netherlands. AIM: Because medical education takes a special position in higher education the Council of Deans of Medical Schools in The Netherlands installed a national task force to explore a method to weigh criteria for teacher qualifications of medical teachers. METHODS: A framework was developed covering competencies of teachers throughout the medical education continuum and including medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine. RESULTS: The framework distinguishes 3 dimensions: (a) six domains of teaching (development - organization - execution - coaching - assessment - evaluation); (b) three levels in the organization at which teachers perform (micro, meso and macro level) and (c) competencies as integration of knowledge, skills and attitude and described as behaviour in specific context. The current framework is the result of several cycles of descriptions, feedback from the field and adaptations. It is meant as a guideline, leaving room for local detailing. CONCLUSION: The framework provides a common language that may be used not only by teachers and teacher trainers, but also by quality assurance committees, human resource managers and institutional boards.

Student teachers' beliefs about mentoring and learning to teach during teaching practice.

BACKGROUND: Various interpretations of mentor roles, by teacher educators and mentors, have been described in the literature on mentoring, while those of student teachers have received less attention. Therefore, this study focuses on student teachers' expectations of mentors and their own contributions to their learning process while they are supervised by a mentor. AIMS: The main aims of this study were: (1) bridging the research on mentoring and the research on higher education students' learning conceptions by investigating student teachers' beliefs about mentoring and learning to teach, and (2) comparing these beliefs to mentors' ones and recent views on mentoring and learning in order to make suggestions for improving learning to teach. SAMPLE: Thirty student teachers, graduates in various academic disciplines, participated. They were attending a one-year teacher education programme at Leiden University in the Netherlands. METHODS: Structured interviews with the student teachers were audio-taped. Firstly, categories of mentor roles and learning activities were derived from the data. These were linked, secondly, by their focus of attention and, thirdly, empirically by a homogeneity analysis (HOMALS). RESULTS: Six mentor roles, ten learning activities, and one regulation activity were combined in six foci: (1) affective aspects of learning to teach, (2) mentors' teaching styles, (3) assessment of student teachers' performance, (4) reflecting on students' lessons, (5) school context, and (6) self-regulation of learning. The HOMALS analysis yielded a process-product dimension. CONCLUSION: In this study, the student teachers' beliefs about mentoring were similar to those of mentors. Furthermore, a third of the student teachers expected themselves as thinking critically about their lessons, but nobody expected their mentors to explicate their practical knowledge underlying their teaching. Therefore, the articulation of this knowledge is indicated as an additional mentor role and will be elaborated.