What matters most? A prioritization of medical students’ preferences for effective teaching

Abstract

Guided by rhetorical and relational goals theory, this study explores medical students' preferences for effective teaching using a "build-a-professor" design. Using a budget methodology, medical students (N = 177) created their ideal clinical or nonclinical medical school educator by prioritizing 10 teaching behaviors and characteristics from instructional communication literature. Overall, medical students prioritized clarity, relevance, and competence as necessity components for effective instruction, whereas other teaching behaviors and characteristics were characterized as luxury components. When comparing ideal clinical and nonclinical medical educators, medical students prioritized clarity less, but prioritized assertiveness and responsiveness more for clinical medical educators. Overall, results suggest that medical school educators might prioritize rhetorical teaching goals, especially teacher clarity, to meet medical students' pedagogical preferences. However, results also suggest that educators realize that relational teaching, including caring and responsiveness, becomes more important as medical students learn during clinical education.