Recently, two of our VFMP faculty members received the 2015 Canadian Association for Medical Education (CAME) Certificate of Merit Award. This honour recognizes and rewards faculty committed to medical education in Canadian medical schools. Dr. Linlea Armstrong and Dr. Pawel Kindler kindly agreed to reflect on their teaching experience and what it has meant to them.
Dr. Linlea Armstrong
Clinical Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Medical Genetics
I’m in Medical Genetics, and have been with the Provincial Medical Genetics Program since 2003. I also hold the role of Faculty Development Director, VFMP within the Faculty of Medicine.
I have worked to develop, and then teach in and direct the Preparation for Medical Practice (PMP) course. This course is a fourth year MDUP, multi-format course with many teachers participating. It provides approximately 150 formal learning hours, and is delivered to 298 students at three sites across BC per year.
I have also led the PRIN 410 Week on single gene disease for first year medical students. This included maintaining the PBL case, lecturing, assessment, remediation, and providing content and case expertise at the tutor development meeting.
Since starting as a Clinical Geneticist in 2003, I have welcomed diverse clinical learners into my practice, including residents and fellows, trainees in diagnostic laboratory programs, genetic counseling students, and nursing students.
What I enjoy most about teaching is being in a learning environment where people take the time to think through problems collaboratively and move the group understanding ahead. People one finds working in medical education circles tend to be positive, interesting, and keen to help others.
If I could give one piece of advice to those who find teaching a challenge, it would be to invest time in getting to know the learner and the learner’s goals up front. One of the biggest pitfalls we as busy clinicians fall into when we get asked to teach is assuming we know what the learners want and expect from us, and thus failing to set up for a successful interaction by negotiating the parameters of the interaction. Learners usually can very clearly answer the simple question, “How will I be most successful working with you today?”
Dr. Pawel Kindler
Senior Instructor, Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences
A basic scientist by training, I joined the UBC Faculty of Medicine in 2004 to focus on medical education, which became my passion soon after my earlier appointment in the medical school at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Contributing to the education of future physicians is an immense privilege and a lasting challenge which I endeavor to approach from a research-informed perspective, both in the disciplines that I teach and in educational scholarship. My teaching responsibilities at UBC have focused on gross anatomy, physiology and problem/case based learning in the Medical and Dental Undergraduate Program, but I have also been involved in the renewal process of the undergraduate medical curriculum and in fostering pedagogical innovation within several already existing courses.
Through my scholarship of teaching and learning I have considered opportunities to optimize learning outcomes in ways that draw on students’ increased motivation and a sense of ownership of the learning process. The most rewarding aspects of teaching for me are the partnerships that I develop with clinical and foundational science colleagues that are so instrumental in providing effective and exciting learning environments. Equally rewarding are my partnerships with our students, especially in the contexts of addressing their specific learning needs and goals and making overall contributions to their emergence as knowledgeable, reflective and caring medical and dental practitioners.
I am grateful to my colleagues for nominating me for this prestigious award, and deeply humbled by having received it.