Microteaching enhances teaching skills of resident doctors in India: A pilot study.

Background: The Medical Council of India has recommended microteaching for training medical graduates to improve their teaching efficiency. We assessed the effectiveness of microteaching on teaching skills of resident doctors through objective and subjective methods.

Methods: We obtained data from three microteaching sessions in which 10 resident doctors participated. Seven core teaching skills of the participants were compared between two training sessions using the paired t-test. Only 4 residents who had participated in the training sessions appeared for the semester examination. We compared the performance of the 'trained' residents (π = 4) with the 'naïve' residents (n = 6) who were getting exposed to microteaching for the first time during the semester examination using the Mann-Whitney test.

Results: Participants scored significantly high in the second training session compared to the first one. All the participants perceived the training sessions to have a positive effect on their teaching skills. In the semester examination, 'trained' residents performed significantly better than their 'naïve' counterparts.

Conclusions: Microteaching not only improved the teaching skills of the residents but also helped them perform well in their semester examination held 10 months later. Our results indicate that microteaching can be an effective teacher training technique for residents.