Level of Confidence in the 12 Roles of Medical Teacher. A Descriptive Study at Faculty of Medicine, Srinakharinwirot University, Thailand
Panwara Paritakul MD*, Monton Wongwandee MD**, Tanitra Tantitemit MD*, Somphoch Pumipichet MD*, Reg Dennick PhD***
Affiliation : * Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, Srinakharinwirot University, Nakhon Nayok, Thailand ** Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Srinakharinwirot University, Nakhon Nayok, Thailand *** Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
Background : An appropriate faculty development program is imperative for every medical school and should be tailored to
suit the needs of individuals and the institution.
Objective : To measure the average level of confidence in each of the 12 roles of medical teachers and analyse if any of these
factors: age, gender, duration of teaching, and teaching in pre-clinical or clinical years has effect on the level of confidence in
the teacher roles.
Material and Method: The online questionnaire invitations were sent via email to all 211 faculty members at Faculty of
Medicine, Srinakharinwirot University, and 118 (55.9%) responded. The questionnaire asked about demographic data,
teaching experience and their specialty or disciplines. The respondents were also asked to rate their level of confidence in each
of the 12 teacher roles on a 5 point Likert scale ranging from 1 (none) to 5 (great).
Results : The three most highly rated roles on the level of confidence were the clinical teacher (4.11), the on the job role model
(4.11) and the lecturer (3.97). The three roles with the lowest rating were the curriculum planner (3.08), the curriculum
assessor (3.23) and the mentor (3.31). Age and teaching experience were positively correlated with the level of confidence in
nearly all of the 12 teacher roles. The pre-clinical year teachers had a higher mean level of confidence than clinical teachers
in 6 out of the 12 roles.
Conclusion : The future faculty development programs should aim towards supporting self-evaluation of teaching, mentoring
as well as promoting facilitative roles of the teacher. Retention of faculty members at the institution is also important as the
teaching experience significantly correlate with confidence in the teacher roles.
Keywords : Faculty development, Teacher roles, Medical education
