From the Field: Put Your Troops in Groups

ABC of teaching and learning in medicine: Teaching small groups. Jaques D. BMJ. 2003; 326(1): 492-494. Available online. 

This guest post (a feature I'm calling "from the field") was written by Lauri Meade, associate program director for internal medicine at Baystate, and her colleagues from the department of internal medicine; Reham Shaaban, Chris LaChance, Jasmine Padaam, Siva Natanasabapathy, Raquel Belforti, Michael Picchioni, and Christine Bryson.  
This group of medical educators offered their residents and faculty some great ways to spruce up small groups, and they have graciously allowed me to share their tips with you. Consider engaging your colleagues with these tricks during other faculty development opportunities, such as grand rounds or faculty meetings. Cheers to the medicine faculty - now dig in!

As teaching faculty, we are often teaching in small groups (i.e. attending rounds and noon lecture). Here are some great basic tips to small group teaching:

  * conduct dialogue rather than give a lecture

  * get the learner talking more than the teacher

  * get the learners to talk to each other

  * learners should be able to prepare for the learning session

  * be wary of one learner dominating the discussion

In addition, we can also use innovative methods in small groups:

  * Show a TED Talk during rounds – such as this one from Sal Khan, an educator who spoke at the AAMC conference this year

  * Get everyone to ‘race to the correct answer' on their iPhone

  * Use Google images to illustrate a point

  * Orchestrate abstract browsing: Browse recent or topical literature. Together in the session read an abstract silently for 1 minute then talk for 4 minutes.  Repeat this for 6 abstracts and then choose the full paper you want to read.

  * Use Twitter to engage the learner

  * Take a field trip (go as a group to a hospital area, such as radiology or the micro lab)

Homework: 

  We challenge you to go to ‘TED Talks healthcare’ and learn in 8-12 minutes.

  Try splitting into pairs to answer a clinical question, then have the pairs teach the group.

  How do you help your resident engage the learner at attending rounds?

Bottom Line:

A group of internal medicine faculty from Baystate offer these tips to get your learners engaged in their small groups. A little technology and some creative teaching strategies go a long way.