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This paper explores the core teaching beliefs of medical school faculty and establishes whether these beliefs differ among basic science, clinical, and instruction specialist faculty. One hundred and twenty-five medical school teachers who were members of professional organizations dedicated to the improvement of medical school teaching completed a Q-sort of 56 statements reflecting their core teaching beliefs. The statements described beliefs about motivation, knowledge and skill acquisition, retention, feedback, transfer, teacher characteristics, and teaching strategies. Q-sorts were completed by 37 basic scientists (30% of respondents), 59 clinicians (47%) and 29 instruction specialists (23%) working in medical schools. Fifty-two participants were classroom teachers (42%), 66 were classroom and clinical teachers (53%), and seven reported that they do not teach (6%). The Q-sort results indicate how medical school faculty members differ in their core beliefs about teaching and learning. Thirty-two respondents (26%) focused on the student as a person first. Eight (6%) were content oriented. Thirty-four (27%) were performance oriented; their focus was on having students learn and apply knowledge and skills to accomplish clinical tasks. Fifty-one respondents (41%) were found to have a blend of these viewpoints. Respondents' type of training or type of teaching did not provide a reliable indication of core teaching beliefs classification.
Williams et al. (Sun,) studied this question.