Microtutoring: A Faculty Development Workshop Using Scripted Tutorials

Abstract This workshop was designed to help medical school faculty facilitate problem-based learning (PBL) tutorials on how to handle groups with difficult students. It is intended for advanced tutors who have mastered the rudiments of group facilitation. The goals of the workshop are to help faculty improve skills needed to handle difficult students and problems in the group process, while also providing instruction on how to serve as peer coaches by providing feedback to fellow tutors. This manual includes guidelines for preparing for and conducting the workshop. It includes information on useful readings, materials needed, and distribution of roles, as well as scripted scenarios for each problem. The workshop leader should use their own PBL case as the basis for discussion. Additionally, a videotape of a microtutoring workshop is available in which one may observe five medical education trainees role playing and debriefing each exercise. No formal evaluation has been conducted but the workshop has been well received at multiple medical schools in the US and Germany. This is a useful exercise for anyone with enough experience as a student or tutor to understand typical problems (e.g., quiet students, conflict). Participants can often conceive of strategies to solve the problems fairly easily. Even when these solutions are not the best, they stimulate discussion and lead to group solutions.