A typology of teaching roles and relationships for medical education

BACKGROUND: Educational programs involve interactions between the instructors and the learners. In these interactions, instructors may play various roles. However, a nomenclature for relationships with learners appropriate to those roles has not been developed for medical education. AIMS: This article presents a typology of instructor's roles to facilitate the connection of outcomes with instructional methods and to inform training sessions for instructors. METHOD: Published articles in general education and medical education were searched for examples of terms used for instructor's roles in developmental interactions. Examples were grouped and classified to develop a two-dimensional typology. RESULTS: The typology has eight categories on two dimensions. One dimension is the purpose for interaction: (1) knowledge transmission, (2) professional identity formation, (3) negotiating the institutional milieu, and (4) relationship building. The other dimension is dichotomous on whether the instructor is a member of the profession to which the learners aspire. Twelve terms were categorized: Advisor, Advocate, Buddy, Coach, Counselor, Facilitator, Guru, Master, Mentor, Role model, Teacher and Tutor. CONCLUSIONS: Faculty instructors in medical education are often pressed for time, so clarifying role expectations is a low-cost scheme to enhance results. Using the typology can align instructor behavior with the desired learner outcomes and enhance efficient use of instructional time.