title: Understanding the challenges to facilitating active learning in the resident conferences: a qualitative study of internal medicine faculty and resident perspectives.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In the Next Accreditation System, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education outlines milestones for medical knowledge and requires regular didactic sessions in residency training. There are many challenges to facilitating active learning in resident conferences, and we need to better understand resident learning preferences and faculty perspectives on facilitating active learning. The goal of this study was to identify challenges to facilitating active learning in resident conferences, both through identifying specific implementation barriers and identifying differences in perspective between faculty and residents on effective teaching and learning strategies.
  
  
  METHODS
  The investigators invited core residency faculty to participate in focus groups. The investigators used a semistructured guide to facilitate discussion about learning preferences and teaching perspectives in the conference setting and used an 'editing approach' within a grounded theory framework to qualitative analysis to code the transcripts and analyze the results. Data were compared to previously collected data from seven resident focus groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three focus groups with 20 core faculty were conducted. We identified three domains pertaining to facilitating active learning in resident conferences: barriers to facilitating active learning formats, similarities and differences in faculty and resident learning preferences, and divergence between faculty and resident opinions about effective teaching strategies. Faculty identified several setting, faculty, and resident barriers to facilitating active learning in resident conferences. When compared to residents, faculty expressed similar learning preferences; the main differences were in motivations for conference attendance and type of content. Resident preferences and faculty perspectives differed on the amount of information appropriate for lecture and the role of active participation in resident conferences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study highlights several challenges to facilitating active learning in resident conferences and provides insights for residency faculty who seek to transform the conference learning environment within their residency program.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ, USA; sawatsky.adam@mayo.edu.
authors.forename: Adam P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Sawatsky
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Susan L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Zickmund
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Berlacher
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lesky
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Rosanne
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Granieri
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D004777:Environment; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009042:Motivation; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods
keywords: active learning; conference; graduate medical education; lecture; lifelong learning; medical education