Basic Science Faculty Conception of Learning and Teaching
Authors: Carvalho Helena , Dane Francis C , Whicker Shari A 
Published: June 2021

Background

Some of what we teach now for medical students may be obsolete by the time they practice medicine. Instead of trying to teach everything, it is important to stimulate them to learn how to most effectively and efficiently learn, to discover new and evolving knowledge that they need now and in the future. Approaches to teaching can be placed on a continuum that ranges from teacher‐centered (focus on knowledge transmission) to student‐centered (focus on conceptual change in students). The educator's conception of learning and teaching (COLT) affects teaching and, ultimately, what students learn. The aim was to research the COLT for Basic Science faculty who teach physiology and other disciplines at one medical school.

Methods

The COLT, a published survey instrument (Jacobs et al., 2012), was distributed via REDCap to 130 faculty who teach Basic Sciences (BS) at Virginia Tech Carilon School of Medicine (VTCSOM). The COLT contain 3 scales: 1) Teacher Centeredness (TC: how important the respondent perceives his/her role as a teacher); 2) Appreciation of Active Learning (AL: how the teacher values students' discussing learned material, elaborating, and interpreting information); and 3) Orientation to Professional practice (OP: future professional practice integrated in the teaching). Demographic information such as teaching experience and teaching methodologies was collected. Reliability for the survey was assessed with Cronbach's alpha test. Correlation and Chi Square were used to examine relationships between variables. Analysis of Variance was used to examine group differences.

Results

The authors received 38% of possible survey responses (50 out 130). Overall BS, including 14 physiology faculty, scored higher on AL (4.06 ± 0.41) and OP (4.2 ± 0.45) and lower in TC (3.12 ± 0.6) regardless of gender and degree. 17 disciplines were listed and 21 teaching modalities were reported. Most faculty lecture (80%), and laboratory teaching (20%) are used by faculty who scored high on TC (F= 8.69; p=.005). Younger faculty (30–39 y.o.) score lower than older (50–59 y.o.) on TC (F=3.29; p=.027). More variety of teaching styles was observed among faculty with a lower score in TC (r = −.323, p = .022), a higher academic rank (r =.401; p=0.006), and more time teaching (r=.483; p=0.001).

Conclusion/Discussion

VTCSOM Basic Science faculty Conception of Learning and Teaching aligned with the school approach as faculty appreciate active learning more than teacher centred. More teaching methods are correlated with low score on teacher centred, high rank and more time teaching. This is relevant because it reaches a larger number of students as they are exposed to more diverse opportunities to learn actively. Also, as described in the literature, medical students prefer variety of teaching styles (Lujan & DiCarlo, 2006) and active learning leads to deep learning (Michael, 2006).

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.