LKCMedicine Year 5 students get ready to become tomorrow's teachers
By Dr Anna Romito, Curriculum Development Lead
Having demonstrated robust core clinical knowledge and skills in the final summative MBBS examinations earlier this year, the Year 5 students are now practising the skills that they will need as graduates in the final component of LKCMedicine’s innovative curriculum, the Student Assistantship Programme (SAP). Over the course of 10 weeks, students work within clinical teams, both in hospitals and in the community honing their skills in family and general medicine as well as surgery. Combined with deepening their clinical skills, our students are also embracing the learning of teaching skills.
While several senior students have previously participated in supporting their juniors through voluntary, cross-age peer-teaching, the SAP is a time when they formally learn the skills of effective peer-teaching. During the SAP orientation course, Year 5 students cover the teaching principles for medical education through e-learning modules, Team-Based Learning and practical sessions. Through role play, they take turns to experience being a learner, teacher and observer in typical activities used in medical education. This gives them the opportunity to appreciate all aspects of the learner-teacher interaction, including the responsibilities and challenges of being the teacher, and to reflect on their own skills.
Now further equipped to deliver peer-teaching, the Year 5 students are supporting their Year 3 juniors in learning clinical skills. Peer-learning activities are underpinned by a wealth of evidence, showing benefits for both the learners and teachers: teaching others is known to reinforce your own learning on the topic, whilst concurrently developing the broader professional skills required for effective teaching and life-long learning.
These experiences help our students develop their professional identity, with palpable responsibility towards education of the wider clinical team. This stands our students in good stead as they start their journey towards becoming tomorrow’s clinicians and clinical educators. All of us in the London Office wish them well!
