Core Curriculum

Back to Table of Contents

STFM is responding to the need expressed by its members for professional development to prepare family medicine faculty to function effectively in an academic environment.

Three entry-level courses on teaching, research, and administrative skills have been developed to address the needs of community- and medical school-based family medicine educators. These courses are primarily directed at faculty who are neither fellowship candidates nor can attend a sufficient number of STFM or other programs to build these skills systematically.

The STFM faculty development core curriculum provides participants with a basic set of skills in teaching, research, and administration; facilitates present work performance; advances personal and professional goals; and provides family medicine with a well-qualified leadership pool.

Each course in the series is based on principles of adult learning. The opening session is didactic with a highly interactive format in which small groups work with core faculty. The conference following the workshop is used as a learning laboratory. Participants attend plenaries, seminars, and sessions of their choice. They practice and expand skills gained in the course. Participants gather with their instructors twice during the conference to share and review their work.

For example, in the teaching skills course, participants meet on the first day to learn a curriculum-planning model. A faculty tutor oversees participants who are given the task of planning a unit of instruction using problem-solving skills within groups of five. Following a talk on teaching settings and a demonstration lecture on how to give a presentation, each person videotapes a 5-minute talk on a medical or nonmedical subject, followed by individual feedback on the videotape. Participants are then asked to observe a plenary, seminar, or workshop of their choice. Later, members meet to critique presentations for curriculum content and review the educational advantages and limitations of typical teaching settings: the lecture, the small group or seminar, and the skill-building workshop.