Family Medicine - Foundational Teaching Skills Program

The Family Medicine Foundational Teaching Skills Program is a collaboration between the DFM and the Office of Faculty Development (OFDP) here at the University of Calgary. The virtual 5 session course is designed to provide you with the fundamental skills needed to be a great teacher. If you’re new to teaching or just want to continue growing your skill set in family medicine teaching, this course is for you!

The five sessions cover a range of topics, from an introduction to teaching skills, to providing feedback and identify learners in difficulty. Running from February to June, each 90 minute session is held on a Friday from 12:00-1:30pm via zoom.

At the end of FM-FTSP, participants will demonstrate (by way of their teaching evaluations and feedback at the UME and PGME levels) successful achievement of the following objectives: 

1. Improve preparation for teaching FM learners (communicator, leader, scholar)
2. Incorporation and application of Cognitive Psychology principles and foundational teaching skills into their day-to-day clinical teaching of FM learners, content design, and mentoring (collaborator, scholar)
3. Interpret analytical and non-analytical reasoning, as well as the basis for cognitive diagnostic errors (leader, scholar)
4. Demonstrate proper feedback and mentoring techniques, in particular as applied to the learner in difficulty (communicator, collaborator)
5. Implement strategies to create a safe learning environment (collaborator, professional)
6. Reflect and evaluate their own teaching skills and identification of areas for further improvement (leader, scholar)
7. Adapt and evaluate different teaching skills to specific learners and situations (collaborator, health advocate)

Participants who complete the program (at least 4 of the 5 sessions) will be presented with a certificate of completion at the end.

Number of sessions: 5

Minimum commitment: 4 sessions 

Time: 12:00-1:30pm MT

Registration: Closed

Cost: $0.00 

Objectives: 

1. Explain the importance of working memory in promoting acquisition (storage) of content 
2. Describe long-term memory in terms of implicit and explicit subcomponents  
3. Apply principles of content retrieval to their teaching/curricular design practice  

Objectives: 

1. Compare and contrast analytical from non-analytical reasoning 
2. Define heuristics and biases  
3. Explore sources of reasoning error  
4. Apply strategies to mitigate reasoning error

Objectives: 

1. Summarize the importance of feedback 
2. Identify barriers faced when providing feedback 
3. Review strategies to facilitate feedback delivery 
4. Adapt and move from point in time feedback to coaching 

Objectives: 

1. Define and identify key elements of a safe learning environment 
2. Select strategies to establish safety in the learning environment 
3. Respond to issues that threaten safety within the learning environment 

Objectives: 

1. Recognize individual learner needs, and the factors that may impact performance 
2. Provide valuable and actionable feedback to the struggling learner 
3. Created and work with an individualized learning plan, remediation or probation contract