Reflection on Clinical Teaching: Shortcomings and its Rectification

Abstract

This essay is a reflection on the three sessions of my clinical teaching practice. It ponders over the planning, evaluation and future plans of my clinical teaching approaches and styles. The first part is a reflective log of the three sessions and the second part is a detailed reflection on that reflective log. 

Keywords:  reflective log, reflection, planning, action plan

A Reflection on Clinical Teaching: Shortcomings and its Rectification

The aim of this essay is to analyze and evaluate the episodes in which I was involved during my clinical teaching fellowship as a junior doctor. I got to devote two-thirds of my time to teach and develop the skills of the learners/students in my fellowship which gave me the opportunity to learn and teach side by side. I will also discuss in this essay the approaches and methods that I used to teach and also reflect on the three episodes of clinical opportunities. 

I planned each session considering the course objectives and opted for different teaching styles so that the learners can easily comprehend the context of the topics. I will also discuss how I incorporated the theories and models in my sessions to teach the students and how my teaching methods engaged them in developing their learning and practical skills. 

The first part of the essay will present the reflective log of my clinical teaching fellowship including the three teaching events in which I was involved and the second part of the essay will evaluate the learning outcomes and will critically reflect my role as a clinical teacher with a focus on educational principles. 

Therefore, the main objectives of this essay can be described as follows:

• Evaluate whether the theory and literature has been applied to the clinical teaching events
• Critically reflect upon my own clinical teaching practice and learning

A Reflective Log of Clinical Teaching Practice

This section of the essay includes the reflective log of my clinical teaching fellowship as a junior doctor. I will demonstrate three clinical teaching events and will discuss how I applied theories and models in order to teach the students in the most comprehensive way. As a clinical teacher, it is my duty to make sure that the students are able to understand the topic at hand and can use their interactive and cognitive skills. According to Spencer (2003), it is important to know who you are teaching, what you are teaching and how you are teaching. Before the sessions started, I made sure that everything is planned well before time. The planning included what I had to teach and the methods I chose to deliver the concepts. I also took note of the fact that how the students would understand the sessions. I designed the each session according to the capabilities of the students and made the lectures spread out evenly through the time slot so that the time period is fully used. I structured my sessions with the help of various teaching methods, such as slides, lecture notes, readings, examples, etc. I used cognitive learning, exploratory and experiential learning theories to aid my methods. These theories help the students to build their intellectual and interactive skills and be able to learn and understand the theory before practice.