Why do I teach?
I have enjoyed teaching others from a young age, although I didn’t realize it until recently. Beginning in grade school, I would take the initiative to explain a concept or math problem to my classmates when I saw that they didn’t understand. I would help my friends with homework or assignments when they had difficulty with it. During study groups in college, I would find myself at the white board explaining a chemistry problem from step one. In pharmacy school, I was asked to tutor other students in our more challenging classes. I didn’t realize it in those moments; I was just doing what felt right. However, looking back at all of those instances, I see that teaching others is something I just feel natural doing. I jump at the chance to help others and share with them the knowledge that I have.
As I have been asked to teach throughout this residency year, I have started to develop and incorporate several key teaching beliefs into my teaching experiences. My teaching style is continually evolving to meet the needs of my learners as I want to improve my skills and techniques for future students. As I wish to foster life-long learning in my students, the same goes for me. I want to continue learning how to be a better educator with each teaching opportunity. My goals for teaching include building relationships with my learners, setting expectations, encouraging critical thinking, and providing feedback.
Build Relationships
I believe the key to providing the most influential and memorable learning experiences is by first building a relationship with your learners. The most valuable learning I have had was from a teacher that I knew, liked, and respected. As a student, I am more open to learning when I know that my teacher genuinely cares about my education, and the only way this can happen, is if my teacher knows me. Because of the positive experiences I have had from teachers that took the time to get to know me, I want to emulate this with my learners as well. I believe that building authentic relationships with your learners creates an environment where the student is eager and excited to learn.
Set Expectations
I think it is so important that expectations be set in place from the beginning of the experience. As a learner myself, I have had both experiences of having expectations given to me and also having been given no expectations at all. Personally, I found it very frustrating when no expectations were provided. When expectations aren’t set forth, it is hard to know what the teacher wants from the student and often leads to poorer performance by the student. As a teacher, my goal is to ensure my learner knows the full expectations for the experience. This ensures the student knows what is required from them, and it also allows me as the teacher to evaluate the student easily and fairly. I can judge whether or not the student did not meet, met, or exceeded the expectations that I set forth. I think when expectations are provided, it allows for a more enjoyable and beneficial learning environment. Students know what to strive for and feel accomplished when they meet or exceed expectations.
Encourage Critical Thinking
In my opinion, the best way to learn and retain knowledge is when you have to discover information on your own. When a teacher hands you the information, it doesn’t require critical thinking or problem solving skills. Through my teaching, I want my students to learn how to process information, critically assess the situation or scenario, and then provide a thought-out recommendation. An example of how I might encourage these skills include asking the student to think about an antibiotic that the internal medicine team wants to start for a patient with a urinary tract infection (UTI). I would ask the student to decide if the antibiotic is a good choice for our patient by asking themselves many questions (i.e. Is the antibiotic going to treat the most common organisms found in UTIs? Is the antibiotic going to concentrate in the bladder? What dosing adjustments might be required? Does the patient have any allergies? Are there any other medications that the patient is currently taking that might interact with the antibiotic? Are there any abnormal labs that would be a concern for starting this new antibiotic?). I want the student to ask themselves all of these questions and more to critically assess the patient as a whole instead of just thinking about one singular part of the picture. I want to be a teacher who is constantly asking these questions and then expecting that the student will discover the answer on their own by utilizing their resources. I believe that this type of learning is the most beneficial method to cultivate a pharmacist who provides the best possible treatment for patients.
Provide Feedback
Lastly, I want to be a teacher who provides feedback to my students. I love getting feedback from my teachers because it allows me to know whether or not I am meeting expectations, and it helps me understand what I am doing well and areas where I need to improve. When feedback is lacking, the student doesn’t know what they need to work on or how to improve in deficient areas. Providing feedback is not an easy thing to do; it requires paying close attention to your student and determining what skills or attributes that they possess and those in which they are lacking. While it is easy for me to provide positive feedback, I still find it challenging to provide negative feedback. This is a skill I hope to grow in as I believe that well-articulated constructive criticism is vital for a student’s learning and growth as a pharmacist.