To be and to have a critical friend in medical teaching

BACKGROUND In order to stimulate reflection and continuous professional development, a model of critical friends evaluating each other was introduced in medical education. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the critical friend concept can serve as a pragmatic model for evaluation of medical teachers and as a fruitful tool for enhancing self-knowledge and professional development among medical educators. METHODS Three pairs of critical friends were formed, consisting of experienced medical teachers (n = 6) at the Karolinska Institutet. Each teacher was assigned to give 1 lecture and 1 seminar in his or her specific research or clinical field. The critical friend evaluated the performance in class, acting as an observer using a pre-formed protocol. The evaluation was communicated to the teacher during a 45-minute session within 48 hours after the teaching session. Each of the 6 teachers was criticised and gave criticism within the pair configurance. The outcome of the process was evaluated by an experimenter, not participating in the process, who performed a semistructured interview with each of the 6 teachers. RESULTS Each teacher had a different way of reflecting on teaching after the project than before and made changes in his or her way of teaching. We also noted that being a critical friend may be even more effective than having one. The majority of the feedback provided was positive and valuable. CONCLUSION To be and to have a critical friend is worth the extra workload. Therefore, the critical friend concept should be made part of regular teaching practice.