title: Training experts in family medicine teaching.
abstract: Family medicine teachers require specific educational skills. A framework for their professional development is essential for future development of the discipline in Europe. EURACT developed a framework on educational expertise, and subsequently applied it in a curriculum of teaching-skills courses of various levels. The aim of this article is to describe the development of the teaching framework, and of an international three-level course programme for 'teaching-the-teachers'. Furthermore, we describe our experiences and lessons learned, in particular with regard to the level-three programme for proficient teachers, which was new. We conclude that it is possible to develop a theoretical framework of family medicine teaching expertise and to apply it in an international high-level educational programme for future experts in family medicine education. Research evidence of the usefulness of this approach is needed, and the threats for its further development into a sustainable activity are its high teacher/student ratio associated with relatively high costs and difficulties in recruiting suitable participants.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Family Medicine , Medical Faculty, University of Ljubljana , Ljubljana , Slovenia ;
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Švab
authors.affiliation: b EURACT, European Academy of Teachers in General Practice/Family Medicine ;
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.affiliation: b EURACT, European Academy of Teachers in General Practice/Family Medicine ;
authors.forename: Egle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Žebiene
authors.affiliation: a Department of Family Medicine , Medical Faculty, University of Ljubljana , Ljubljana , Slovenia ;
authors.forename: Marija
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Petek Šter
authors.affiliation: c Department of Family Medicine , Jagiellonian University Medical College , Krakow , Poland.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Windak
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000592:standards; D005060:Europe; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000193:education* / Q000592:standards; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D017145:Models, Educational; D011361:Professional Competence
keywords: Medical education; basic concepts and models; philosophy