Developing the teaching instinct

describes language as an instinct . as innate to us as  ying is to geese. He suggests that language is not a cultural artefact that we learn the same way we learn to tell time or how the government works. It is a complex specialized skill that develops in the child spontaneously, without conscious effort or formal instruction, and is deployed without awareness of its underlying logic. He suggests that people know how to talk in more or less the same way that spiders know how to spin webs. It could be argued that much the same can be said for teaching. With this in mind we have selected the ‘The teaching instinct’ as the title for a new series of practical guides on teaching. To a greater or lesser extent, everyone has some ability and experience of teaching others––the  ve-year-old girl teaching her three-year-old sister how to dress a doll, the plumber showing his assistant how to repair a faulty cistern or the of ce manager inducting a new junior. They may or may not be doing it well, but they are all teaching. The same applies to doctors––they also are implementing a teaching role to a greater or lesser extent.The assumption in this series is that we all have some natural instinct to teach. The aim of this series is to help develop further that instinct. For some doctors the teaching role is a formal one. This might be as a teacher in the undergraduate curriculum or, at postgraduate level, as an educational supervisor or a clinical tutor. For many the teaching role is an informal one. In the  rst year after graduation, for example, the Pre-registration House Of cer leans heavily on the expertise of the Senior House Of cer. Both lean heavily on the Specialist Registrar and, of course, the consultant. All have a teaching role. The GMC recognizes this teaching role. The document The Doctor as a Teacher (1999) states that “All doctors have a professional obligation to contribute to the education and training of other doctors, medical students. ” and “Every doctor should be prepared to oversee the work of less experienced colleagues. ”. The diversity of these teaching responsibilities for doctors and the skills required of them have been highlighted and described in the AMEE guide by Harden & Crosby (2000). As we are all aware, some doctors have a more developed teaching instinct than others. The GMC also recognizes this and states not only that teaching skills can be learnt (GMC, 1999) but that junior doctors should be further developing their ability to teach (GMC, 1998). Courses in Medical Education have been available for many years, but have tended to be at diploma or Master’s level. These have been aimed particularly at the individual with special teaching responsibilities. Not everyone, however, is an enthusiast to that degree. Bearing in mind the GMC’s recommendations, courses have been more widely available recently to all doctors regardless of their teaching commitment and enthusiasm for the subject. Hesketh et al. (2001) describe a framework that takes a holistic approach to the roles of the teacher and helps to de ne different competences for different categories of teachers, which can prove useful for course providers. There still remains, however, for some a mismatch between courses provided and doctors’ perceived needs for training in this subject area. Reasons for this mismatch include the following: