Teaching is a process of sharing information from one person to another person specifically from teacher to students. This is one of the classical definition of teaching, whereas there are multiple aspects of teaching that help a person to expand their skills rather than just as a profession.
More than a profession, teaching is a way to develop
multiple skills that can help to build a multitasking person.
Teaching is not only confined in the area of a teacher,
whereas student it can also practice teaching to enhance their skills. Skills
such as being the more understandable person, getting better vocabulary,
enhancing the memory power and most important learning twice.
It is simple as a person who teaches learns twice.
To teach is to learn twice- Joseph Joubert
Why medical students should learn how to teach?
Medical education is considered to be one of the toughest
educational course. There are several things that student has to learn during
their medical education. Starting from a general introduction to the human body
to advance complexity of neurology.
Among many study and theories about human body organization,
there are several concepts that have to be as clear as crystal in the student's
brain.
For a normal human brain, it is difficult to retain any kind
of acquired information rather than basic survival and emotional information,
for more than 10 days.
And here a teaching practice comes in a count.
Teaching doesn't always mean that one has to teach a student
it can be practiced among students themselves.
To teach anyone it is mandatory that teacher must have
adequate knowledge about related topics, this encourages student first to have
as much as possible knowledge about the topic that they could possibly come up
with before explaining it to anyone.
So, it is important for any student especially medical
student to have some teaching practice in regular basis. Not only because of
this but there are also much more advantages of including teaching practice in
regular routine which are discussed down below.
Importance of teaching in a medical study
There is no doubt how much medical subjects are complicated.
To understand and retain them for the long term, it is necessary for the student to
have a core concept of those topics which can be improved by practicing
teaching. For instance, in
Anatomy
Anatomy is a subject related to the study of human body organization
that how the structures inside the body are placed and connected with other the anatomical structure of the body to function in unison.
It is almost difficult for everyone to remember the exact
origin, organization, course and relations of each and every anatomical part of
the human body.
For example, there are 206 bones in the human body and the
medical student must know all parts of each bone including relations of those
bones and tiny bony structure with different muscles, tendon, blood vessels and
nerve passing through and around them. This can be a big job for them if they just
try to memorize it at once, but if they try to explain these things to their
classmate it will be easier for them to recall those minor topics with ease.
Pathology
Pathology is a subject which deals with the genesis of
disease from its molecular basis. Student has to learn about different aspects
of disease more specifically gross and microscopic feature of the disease.
A medical student has to go through several numbers of
disease during their medical study period and to memorize all the gross and
microscopic feature of those diseases is always challenging.
It is obvious that student might get confused among those
features as they appeared to be similar in most of the cases with slight but significant
minor differences, which are necessary for differential diagnosis of a
particular disease.
To have an absolute grip on this topics student have to
repeat these topics more often but it is also well known that after studying
for once it became one of the tedious job to revise it again and again.
But this can be done with a lot of fun by the means of
teaching.
When a student is teaching someone about the specific
characteristic of the disease, it is more beneficial for a student who teaches. As he
will never miss out any important highlights and important marker of that
specific disease.
Pharmacology
Now here comes of the most hated but important subject.
Pharmacology is a subject which deals with the two main mechanisms in our body,
that is pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamic. In simple word, it deals with the study of the response of administered drug and body toward each other.
To be a good doctor the knowledge of medicine is a
must. And the medicine that student
comes across during their medical study has multiple applications. Different doses have different types of
action.
For example, aspirin can work as analgesic, antipyretic and
anticoagulant in different doses form. This doses form also depend upon BMR of
the patient. So, to administer the correct drug according to patient’s
compliance, the student must have clear knowledge about the drug.
Along with the multiple applications of a specific drug,
they also come with the different life-threatening adverse effect which should not
be mistaken by a medical student.
And no doubt it is going to be difficult to memorize all those
drugs with their uses, doses, ADR, complications and contraindications. But
these things can be made a bit easier with the help of the teaching and
learning methods.
Microbiology
Microbiology is a subject which deals with the study of a microorganism which is invisible to the human eye.
In a medical study, the student has to learn about various
microorganism which is pathogenic to the human body. In this microbiology, the
student has to study lab diagnosis in a sequential way, that is from collecting
a sample to their lab testing and findings.
Every organism possesses their own unique microbiological findings,
which can be difficult for a medical student to Remember.
Well in this case
also, repetition is necessary for multiple times which can be done by explaining
this topics to a friend in a joyful way.
It is worth to mention here again during this teaching practice,
it enhances their memorizing power and never let to miss out any important
clinical findings for that specific microorganism.
Physiology
Physiology is a subject in medical science which deals with
the study of physiological processes inside the body. Which demonstrate, how
the body machine works. To be more specific about this subject there is not
more to memorize for a medical student instead it is completely based on
conceptual understanding.
And as we know the best way to have a deeper concept is to
know the exact mechanism of that specific system. To boost this concept and
retain them for a longer period of time medical student have to repeat it again
and again.
While explaining these concepts the speaker student can face
counter-question asked by their friends which also help them to increase the boundary of their concept.
Biochemistry
Biochemistry is a medical subject which deals with the
different biochemical reaction inside the human body. The air that we inspire
and the food that we ingest, everything has to through different chemical
reactions to produce energy and keep the human body alive.
For a medical student just to know about the reaction is not
enough, they have to know the details of the reactions, all the enzyme
involved, all the energy produced and all the changes that it brings out with themselves.
And to remember all those involved reactions and biochemical
changes can be difficult. And here the teaching and learning process comes to
rescue. By explaining the same reaction and enzyme involved multiple time to
different friends can help them to have a proper grip over the topic.
Advantage of Teaching in Overall
Better Vocabulary
Teaching process has a very important role in improving the
vocabulary. As we know medical study is full of difficult words. In medical
science, there is specific terminology for most of the medical situations.
To pronounce them accurately needs some practice. It is
hard for a medical student to get the right pronunciation at once.
And here the teaching can help to get the correct vocabulary
for the terminology used in Medical science, from the name of a drug to a
severe clinical condition.
Explanation
Well the best part of teaching is that it increases
explaining skills of a person irrespective of their background, whether they
are a normal art student or a medical student.
It is possible that a person can have a piece of good
theoretical knowledge but they are not able to express their knowledge as they
wanted.
And here over the period of a time teaching helps in such a way
that student can upgrade themselves from a good student to a good teacher,
remember that here the word TEACHER doesn't mean for a teaching profession. It
is all about developing more interactive personality and developing some Social
Skill.
Memory Booster
The one important thing that teaching improves in every
person is there memorizing capacity. We all know our brain is much more capable
then we could possibly imagine. it is not easy to get most out of it and here
the teaching comes to save the game by increasing the memorizing capability.
To teach someone about any topic first of all the person himself
have to be clear about that specific topic and while teaching he gets multiple
revision of that specific topic.
Now I guess it won't be hard to imagine the command of a
person or those topics. Especially in a medical study to be a good doctor one
should have command over the topics and subjects in a curriculum as they count
for someone's life in the coming future.
Reduces Public Fear
Students should always practice teaching among themselves
and even when they are alone. It is because by doing so they developed the
fluency of speaking; they know how to assemble required word spontaneously
while giving a speech.
During the medical study itself, there are several projects
that are student have to complete and present in front of hundreds of people.
for instance, in medical study student are assigned for a community visit and
after the completion of the tour, they have to come up with the data and
findings, that they have found during their visit.
Those data have to be presented among the community people
in real-time. In this scenario, most of the student face difficulty while
demonstrating the presentation.
But for a student who has practiced teaching in their
regular basis, it won't be a big deal. They can present whatever they want with
their maximum efficiency. In this way, teaching can help them to overcome the
public fear.
Viva Preparation
During the medical study, viva/oral examinations are found
to be more stressful than a paper examination. To speak in front of a bench of
a teacher could be really stressful. Most of the student because of their
nervousness can't even remember the answer that they really know.
Well in this
condition if a student has practiced teaching methods during their regular days,
it will be easier for them to come up with the more explanatory answer that the
teacher might be looking for, whereas those who don’t, just forget it due to
their nervousness.
Summary
Due to these several reasons, a student must practice
teaching methods during their regular study period. Because of these advantages, the student must know how to teach as the teaching doesn't always refer to being a
professional teacher rather it is about developing teacher like skills which
helps to be more productive during the study period of life.