To be and to have a critical friend in medical teaching

• BACKGROUND In order to stimulate reflection and continuous professional development, a model of critical friends evaluating each other was introduced in medical education. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the critical friend concept can serve as a pragmatic model for evaluation of medical teachers and as a fruitful tool for enhancing self-knowledge and professional development among medical educators. METHODS Three pairs of critical friends were formed, consisting of experienced medical teachers (n = 6) at the Karolinska Institutet. Each teacher was assigned to give 1 lecture and 1 seminar in his or her specific research or clinical field. The critical friend evaluated the performance in class, acting as an observer using a pre-formed protocol. The evaluation was communicated to the teacher during a 45-minute session within 48 hours after the teaching session. Each of the 6 teachers was criticised and gave criticism within the pair configurance. The outcome of the process was evaluated by an experimenter, not participating in the process, who performed a semistructured interview with each of the 6 teachers. RESULTS Each teacher had a different way of reflecting on teaching after the project than before and made changes in his or her way of teaching. We also noted that being a critical friend may be even more effective than having one. The majority of the feedback provided was positive and valuable. CONCLUSION To be and to have a critical friend is worth the extra workload. Therefore, the critical friend concept should be made part of regular teaching practice.

Nyckelord

education

medical

undergraduate

methods

teaching

standards

clinical competence

standatds

staff development

methods

feedback

self-evaluation programmes

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