title: Qualities of an effective teacher: what do medical teachers think?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Effective teaching in medicine is essential to produce good quality doctors. A number of studies have attempted to identify the characteristics of an effective teacher. However, most of literature regarding an effective medical teacher includes student ratings or expert opinions. Furthermore, interdisciplinary studies for the same are even fewer. We did a cross-sectional study of the characteristics of effective teachers from their own perspective across medicine and dentistry disciplines.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire comprising of 24 statements relating to perceived qualities of effective teachers was prepared and used. The study population included the faculty of medicine and dentistry at the institution. Respondents were asked to mark their response to each statement based on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. These statements were grouped these into four main subgroups, viz. Class room behaviour/instructional delivery, interaction with students, personal qualities and professional development, and analysed with respect to discipline, cultural background, gender and teaching experience using SPSS v 13.0. For bivariate analysis, t-test and one way ANOVA were used. Multiple linear regression for multivariate analysis was used to control confounding variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The top three desirable qualities of an effective teacher in our study were knowledge of subject, enthusiasm and communication skills. Faculty with longer teaching experienced ranked classroom behaviour/instructional delivery higher than their less experienced counterparts. There was no difference of perspectives based on cultural background, gender or discipline (medicine and dentistry).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study found that the faculty perspectives were similar, regardless of the discipline, gender and cultural background. Furthermore, on review of literature similar findings are seen in studies done in allied medical and non-medical fields. These findings support common teacher training programs for the teachers of all disciplines, rather than having separate training programs exclusively for medical teachers. Logistically, this would make it much easier to arrange such programs in universities or colleges with different faculties or disciplines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, International Medical University (IMU), No, 126, Jalan Jalil Perkasa 19, Bukit Jalil, 5700 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. ankurbarua26@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Simerjit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Dinker R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Pai
authors.forename: Nirmal K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.forename: Avneet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kaur
authors.forename: Htoo Htoo Kyaw
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Soe
authors.forename: Ankur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barua
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004497:Education, Dental / Q000592:standards; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000592:standards; D005179:Faculty, Dental / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching / Q000592:standards*
references.citation: J Dent Educ. 2006 Jun;70(6):624-35
references.pmid: 16741130
references.citation: Arch Surg. 2011 Jul;146(7):830-4
references.pmid: 21768430
references.citation: Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2008 Oct;140(2):152-7
references.pmid: 18455863
references.citation: Fam Med. 2005 Jan;37(1):30-5
references.pmid: 15619153
references.citation: Lancet. 2007 Aug 25;370(9588):705-11
references.pmid: 17720022
references.citation: Fam Med. 2005 Jan;37(1):48-53
references.pmid: 15619156
references.citation: Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2011 Sep;205(3):171-6
references.pmid: 21514919
references.citation: J Dent Educ. 2006 Sep;70(9):937-47
references.pmid: 16954415
references.citation: Med Educ. 2000 Oct;34(10):862-70
references.pmid: 11012937
references.citation: Nurs Health Sci. 2011 Mar;13(1):84-7
references.pmid: 21385291
references.citation: Acad Med. 2000 Feb;75(2):161-6
references.pmid: 10693849
references.citation: Fam Pract. 2000 Dec;17(6):547-53
references.pmid: 11120729
references.citation: Acad Med. 1994 May;69(5):333-42
references.pmid: 8166912
references.citation: Acad Med. 2008 May;83(5):452-66
references.pmid: 18448899
references.citation: J Surg Educ. 2011 Sep-Oct;68(5):372-6
references.pmid: 21821215
references.citation: Med Educ. 1995 May;29(3):193-7
references.pmid: 7623711
references.citation: Can Fam Physician. 1976 Oct;22:135-6
references.pmid: 21308076
references.citation: Med Educ. 2001 Apr;35(4):409-14
references.pmid: 11319008
references.citation: Med Educ. 2006 Jul;40(7):624-9
references.pmid: 16836534
references.citation: Med Educ. 2005 Jul;39(7):696-703
references.pmid: 15960790
references.citation: J Nurs Educ. 2005 Apr;44(4):187-92
references.pmid: 15862053
references.citation: Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract. 2011 May;16(2):197-210
references.pmid: 20978840
references.citation: Nurse Educ Today. 2007 Nov;27(8):885-92
references.pmid: 17321013
references.citation: Med Teach. 2009 Jul;31(7):634-41
references.pmid: 19513926