Teaching that sticks: Reflections on a memorable week of the Teaching Evidence-Based Practice course
23 hours and 34 minutes ago
Dr Nicholas Jones reflects on his experience of the Teaching Evidence-Based Practice short course at the University of Oxford, sharing how it enhanced his teaching approach and skills in evidence-based medicine.
About the author: Nicholas Jones is an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in General Practice. His research is focused on the screening, early detection and primary care management of cardio-metabolic-renal disease.
Have you turned into Mr Bean?!’ my wife asked me a week before Christmas as I came in the door from work. I quickly ran through what she might be talking about in my head – perhaps this was a reference to how inadequately I’d packed my bag for our upcoming trip away? Or my habit of finishing getting dressed whilst driving the car because I am always late?
But no, she held up a postcard sent to myself...from myself, by way of explanation.
‘Ahhhhh I said. Teaching Evidence-Based Practice!’ I said with a smile ‘What a great week that was...'
This was around three months after the Teaching Evidence-Based Practice (TEBP) course – a module for medical educators with an interest in teaching the skills and competencies of evidence-based medicine and health care. (You can read more about the module and its long-standing history for excellence in this blog from the course director).
At the end of the in-person teaching week, each student wrote down three key learning points on a postcard and left them with the faculty, but this was long forgotten. These had now been posted to us as a reminder of the engrossing course and our own take-home messages. The postcards were just one example of the care and thought David Nunan, Louise Rickard and the team put into the whole module. They tried to make sure that we took responsibility for our own learning through the week whilst supporting us and embedding these lessons into our knowledge and practice well beyond the module itself.
I am a GP at a central Oxford practice and since April 2024 a Clinical Lecturer (CL) in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences where I undertake research into cardio-metabolic-renal disease. I am involved in teaching undergraduate medical students at our practice. I have recently begun supervising DPhil and master’s students. I also teach on a leading national GP education course, called NB Medical Hot Topics. It has always struck me that much of the teaching I received at medical school was delivered by clinicians who were expert in their topic content but not always particularly good teachers themselves!
Therefore, although teaching is familiar to me, I wanted to take part in the TEBP course to see how I could improve the presentation and delivery of my teaching, learning from experienced and expert teachers. This felt particularly important as I am taking on increasing teaching responsibilities in my CL post.
What made this such a stimulating module?
The timetable delivered an excellent blend of small group work and a range of teaching seminars. The small group sessions provided an opportunity for student-driven learning where we could share ideas and examples of good practice with our peers. The student cohort was an eclectic mix of clinicians and educators from across the world. The experiences and passion each brought to the classroom was a real highlight of the week. Teaching seminars covered a range of important topics, including how to teach EBM within clinical practice, planning assessments and using online platforms to deliver EBM teaching.
The teaching was always engaging. I could feel myself being reeled into the content at the start of each session, perhaps with a challenging clinical scenario to reflect upon or a statistical conundrum that would highlight a gap in one’s own knowledge. Throughout every session, we would regularly discuss ideas within small groups and share learning points. This was a far cry from the one-directional lecture-based teaching I tended to experience at medical school, even when the faculty were presenting as a ‘sage on the stage’.
The module provided me with invaluable instruction – in particular for helping design teaching sessions in a way that both stimulates students and engages them with their learning. I will not only apply this to my teaching but also to research presentations. Some practical examples of key takeaways from the TEBP module include:
-
Engage the audience with a hook at the start of any talk.
-
Keep slides simple and text-light.
-
Be clear about the summary messages you want the audience to leave with.
-
Be realistic about the amount of time that it takes to deliver content.
-
Plan ahead.
I am sure each of my colleagues on the course will have left different points on their own postcard. One of the joys of the week was how David, Louise and the team supported us. They made the teaching and learning experience personal to each of us. I thank them all for providing such a brilliant week and I would recommend the course to anyone interested in teaching evidence-based practice.
Click here to learn more about the Teaching Evidence-Based Practice short course, next running 15-19 September 2025.
What to read next
Reflecting on the Teaching Evidence-Based Practice short course at Oxford
14 January 2025
Dr Angela Difeng Wu shares her reflections on taking the Teaching Evidence-Based Practice short course at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, University of Oxford.