Assessing domain based teaching skills of postgraduates after a workshop on effective lesson plan

Introduction: Despite having to spend a substantial amount of time in teaching undergraduates, postgraduate students do not receive any formal instructions on teaching skills. We undertook a project which aimed at imparting basic teaching skills to postgraduates in the form of formulating a good lesson plan and a study to see whether there was an increase in their confidence levels. Three assessors independently assessed the postgraduates’ use of the domains of a lesson plan as a means of data triangulation. Objectives: Train postgraduate students in constructing a good lesson plan. Evaluate the outcomes of this educational program. Material and Methods: The change in confidence levels of postgraduates was assessed through a retro-pre questionnaire and a check list was used by three independent faculty to assess the use of the domains of a lesson plan and to judge the overall effectivity of teaching. Kappa statistics was used to determine the agreement between the three assessors. Results: A significant improvement in confidence levels of the postgraduates in use of the domains of the lesson plan was observed. The assessors found 70-100% use of the domains of a lesson plan which resulted in effective teaching. The assessors also identified some domains which had not been addressed adequately by the postgraduates. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated an improvement in confidence levels of the postgraduates and assessor evaluation confirmed the improvement in their teaching skills .The road ahead would involve retraining the participants in concepts that they found difficult to emulate, include more postgraduates into the program and obtain student perspective on the teaching skills of postgraduates. Keywords: Postgraduates, Teaching skills, Lesson plan.