EXTENT TO WHICH GUIDED-DISCOVERY TEACHING STRATEGIES WERE USED BY 20 PRECEPTORS IN FAMILY MEDICINE

Background. Learners learn more and are able to categorize problems at higher levels when their teachers use guided-discovery strategies (e. g., questions and advice to investigate relationships between concepts ), as opposed to directly telling learners the answers. This study exa mines the extent to which clinician preceptors of residents use guided -discovery strategies when faced with a diagnostic problem-solving sit uation. Method. Twenty family medicine preceptors from four residencie s volunteered in 1991-92 to role-play with a simulated first-year resi dent on a single standardized case. Judges coded the preceptors' verba l behaviors by type (question, statement, or advice) and by category. The categories were teacher, i.e., behaviors relating to more than the present case (hence exemplifying guided-discovery strategies), and co nsultant, i.e., behaviors relating to the successful disposition of th e case (without overt concern for the education of the resident). Resu lts. Of the preceptors' 846 verbal behaviors, 602 (71%) were coded as teacher behaviors, but only 329 (39%) were teacher behaviors that were of the specific types (high-level advice or questions promoting refle ctivity, i.e., mindfulness) described in the literature as being most likely to promote learners' reflectivity and transfer of knowledge and skills from a lower level of abstraction to a higher level. Conclusio n. The results suggest that the 20 preceptors were aware of the import ance of ''getting residents to think'' and did use teaching strategies known to promote transfer. However, their repertoire of strategies wa s limited.