From What to How: An Exploration of How Genetic Counseling Program Directors Learn to Teach

Abstract

The pathway from medical practitioner to academic teacher is not-well defined, specifically, there is a lack of clarity in how clinicians learn to teach, particularly within the field of genetic counseling. While there is a defined curricular pathway for entry into clinical practice there is not a defined pathway for instruction of health professionals who want to teach. While healthcare professionals enter an academic role with a defined set of clinical skills, they often lack formal training in how to teach. This qualitative phenomenological study, using a community of practice (CoP) theoretical model, explored the pathway to teaching for genetic counseling education program directors. Thirteen study participants shared their professional journey of learning to teach. Data from this study support the three phases of CoP in genetic counseling education program director development: engagement, imagination, and alignment. Participants reported content, instructional, and pedagogical reflection as they progressed in their understanding and development of their own teaching practice. Engagement with genetic counseling education programs was reported in three different ways: planned, sequential, and unplanned. All respondents acknowledged content reflection as a part of their early practice of learning to teach. The imagination phase is demonstrated as individuals expanded their understanding of teaching, program leadership, and responsibilities required to serve as a program director – in other words they began a practice of instructional reflection. Those who reported alignment did so based on mentorship and contribution to the community of genetic counseling education program directors and shared instances of pedagogical reflection. The findings of this study support the premise that genetic counseling education program directors, although not formal scholars in education prior to entry into their educator role, practice the scholarship of teaching and learning through a CoP. They are committed to the practice of evaluating how students learn to improve their own teaching. Further, they are committed to modeling professional development and learning as a member of a CoP. What they lack is the formal understanding of educational theory as it relates to genetic counseling instruction – without this knowledge it is difficult to conduct theoretically grounded educational research and advance the profession.