Peer-led small groups: Are we on the right track?

Introduction: Peer tutor-led small group sessions are a valuable learning strategy but students may lack confidence in the absence of a content expert. This study examined whether faculty reinforcement of peer tutor-led small group content was beneficial.

Methods: Two peer tutor-led small group sessions were compared with one faculty-led small group session using questionnaires sent to student participants and interviews with the peer tutors.

Twelve tips for conducting a medical education journal club.

Background: Journal clubs are active at many universities and they involve many specialties and subspecialties. There is a surprising dearth of journal clubs which deal with articles related to the science of medical education.

Aims: In an effort to expose medical educators to the outstanding benefits of medical education journal clubs we have devised a set of twelve tips to success for such clubs.

Which pedagogical principles should clinical teachers know? Teachers and education experts disagree. Disagreement on important pedagogical principles.

Background: In a previous study, a group of non-clinician medical education experts identified 30 pedagogical principles, knowledge of which might enhance clinical teaching effectiveness.

Aims: To assess expert teachers? perceptions of which basic pedagogical principles, if known and understood, would enhance their teaching effectiveness.

Method: We conducted an on-line Delphi consensus-building study with 25 expert clinical teachers who rated the importance to teaching effectiveness of each of the 30 principles.

If formal CME is ineffective, why do physicians still participate?

Formal or traditional CME can be criticized because organizers often ignore adult learning principles when designing courses. Critics also suggest that formal CME courses have limited impact on attendees' behaviors and practices. The authors agree that attention must be paid to pedagogic principles to assure success of educational courses, but feel that the extant negative evidence related to the impact of formal CME is narrow in scope and of inadequate strength to seriously damn formal approaches.