title: Teaching and educational scholarship in Tanzania: faculty initiative to improve performance of health professions' students.
abstract: Well-educated and competent health professionals influence the health system in which they work to improve health outcomes, through clinical care and community interventions, and by raising standards of practice and supervision. To prepare these individuals, training institutions must ensure that their faculty members, who design and deliver education, are effective teachers. We describe the experience of the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in encouraging improvements in the teaching capacity of its faculty and postgraduate students triggered by a major institutional transition to competency-based education. We employed a multi-stage process that started by identifying the teaching and learning needs and challenges of MUHAS students and faculty. Collaborating with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), MUHAS responded to these needs by introducing faculty to competency-based curricula and later to strategies for long term continuing improvement. We demonstrate that teaching faculty members are keen for local institutional support to enable them to enhance their skills as educators, and that they have been able to sustain a program of faculty development for their peers.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, PO Box 650013 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. charles_mkony@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Charles A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Mkony
authors.forename: Patricia S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: O'Sullivan
authors.forename: Sirra S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Owibingire
authors.forename: Molly V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Fyfe
authors.forename: Selma
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Omer
authors.forename: Phyllis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.forename: Abel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Makubi
authors.forename: Doreen A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Mloka
authors.forename: Carmen J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Portillo
authors.forename: Germana H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Leyna
authors.forename: Edith
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tarimo
authors.forename: Ephata E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Kaaya
authors.forename: Sarah B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Macfarlane
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003162:Competency-Based Education; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000592:standards*; D006281:Health Occupations / Q000193:education* / Q000592:standards; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D013636:Tanzania; D013663:Teaching / Q000592:standards*