Teachers should aim to be stimulating rather than entertaining

BMJ 1999;318:394 ( 6 February )

Letters

Teachers should aim to be stimulating rather than entertaining

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Donald's article on "effective teaching"¹ left us with the feeling that this was an opportunity missed. To beginwith the analogy of good teaching sessions being akin to partiesgives the impression that the prime aim of teachers is to entertainwhereas what we need is teachers who are trained to be effectiveandstimulating.

To illustrate a different approach, in our department all academic members of staff do a formal induction programme on howto teach.² This programme is planned with the staff concernedand is geared to their particular needs. Initially, they havea detailed analysis of their consulting skills as this gives manyrelevant insights into their likely attitudes to, and behaviourin,teaching.

The teacher then learns how to encourage students to adopt a deep approach to learning by creating an environment in which,among others, the following characteristics are modelled and valuedby . . . [Full text of this article]