key: cord-0824001-u40p74pb authors: Samarasekera, Dujeepa D.; Lee, Shuh Shing; Findyartini, Ardi; Mustika, Rita; Nishigori, Hiroshi; Kimura, Shunsuke; Lee, Young-Mee title: Faculty development in medical education: an environmental scan in countries within the Asia pacific region date: 2020-05-28 journal: Korean J Med Educ DOI: 10.3946/kjme.2020.160 sha: 73d5b2e35ad552e601c68756996e317a4558c08f doc_id: 824001 cord_uid: u40p74pb PURPOSE: In recent years, faculty development (FD) research is more noticeable within an inter-professional context and in allied health education. However, there is a paucity of published literature on FD medical education programs in Asia. With the formation of the Asia Pacific Medical Education Network (APME-Net) in 2015, a scoping review of an environmental scan of FD medical education programs in main institutions in South East Asia and Australia in 2018 was conducted. METHODS: A survey was developed to collect data on FD in medical education after several rounds of discussion with APME-Net members. The representatives from nine countries in Asia and Australia were invited to partner in this research project. They sent the questionnaire to the Dean of all different medical schools after ethical clearance. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Only institutions in four countries responded to the questionnaire. The medical/health professions education center/department/unit has been established in most educational institutions in these countries. These centers/departments/units mostly carry out FD programs to improve the teaching and learning skills of trained participants, particularly clinical teachers via workshops and seminars. Staffing issues and participant buy-in are the current key priorities of the center/department/unit in terms of FD. Lastly, research related FD program has not been well-supported in these countries, hence, the lack of publication in this area. CONCLUSION: Collaboration between countries to address key areas of interest and develop more standardized and productive FD medical education is required especially in research. Systematic and structured faculty development (FD) was developed due to the need of training in educational theory and teaching methodologies among teachers involved in Health Professions Education programs. The previous assumption was that the teachers involved in Health Professions Education programs are capable of teaching once they specialized in their subject areas and joined an institution. It was assumed, during the old days, health professions educators were capable of teaching once they joined an institution. However, it was soon apparent that some training will assist them to teach more effectively and enhance student learning. Since then, FD has been incorporated as an essential feature of medical school organization and gained attention in different parts of the world. Multiple definitions of FD have been put forward by different researchers. However, these definitions share two key perspectives: consists of a broad range of activities and prepares faculty in their roles in terms of knowledge, skills, and behavior [1] [2] [3] [4] . However, a faculty member's roles have become more complex to meet the ever changing demands of education. Apart from being an educator, faculty member is also a leader, a researcher, and a scholar [4] . Their roles and identities change when the career progresses from a junior member stage (such as becoming a program director or dean). Hence, the FD should also be strategically developing to enhance teachers' identity [5] . FD has become an essential feature of Health Professions Education programs and research related to this area is also growing. There are multiple systematic reviews published since 1977 in medical education [6] . In general, research articles were largely focusing on evaluating the intervention for FD by exploring participant perceptions and learning impact [6, 7] . There are also reviews regarding the formats used for FD such as standalone workshops, longitudinal and mixed formats [8] [9] [10] . In recent years, FD research is more noticeable within an inter-professional context and in allied health education [11] [12] [13] . However, there is a paucity of published literature on FD medical education programs in Asia. Only four studies in Asia were published on the FD programs in general education according to a systematic review conducted by Phuong et al. [10] recently. With the formation of the Asia Pacific Medical Education Network (APME-Net) in 2015, a scoping review of an environmental scan of FD medical education programs in main institutions in South East Asia and Australia in 2018 was conducted. The information collected will be useful to identify areas to collaborate and provide support to institutions, as well as to better understand the different emphasis of FD for each country. A survey was developed to collect data on FD in medical education. At the initial stage, literature review was carried out to look for existing questionnaires. After several rounds of discussion with APME-Net members, it was decided to develop a questionnaire since limited contextually relevant resources were found. Key domains were identified by the group and relevant questions were formulated. After several rounds of refinement within the group, a final set of questions were identified. To develop a questionnaire, a few domains were discussed and formed among the members of APME-Net. These domains are approaches to FD, implementation and evaluation of FD program, and research in FD. Each member contributes a few questions pertaining to the domains. Once the questions were finalized, the entire questionnaire was circulated to 12 representatives, one from each country, to scrutinize and refine further the items. The finalized questionnaire in English was vetted by a committee which comprised of experts in FD. The representatives from nine countries in Asia and Australia were invited to partner in this research project. Table 1 Indonesia. Most medical education center/department/ unit do not run medical program except Japan (80% of the centers). The intent of carrying FD programs is still focusing on improving teaching and learning skills (include curriculum design, delivery, and assessment). There is still a lack of emphasis on building research capacity, leadership and management skills, and career development. The target being trained are very much in isolation which is uni-professional rather than multi or inter-professionals. Increasingly, clinical teachers are to this area and it is even lower for Korea and Japan. Most of the research conducted is still focusing on evaluation of intervention in FD program and its impact. Due to limited involvement in FD research, the publication produced is also scarce (which is less than 30%). the learning environment and atmosphere [15] . Studies have also shown that the majority of FD interventions were targeted on practicing clinicians instead of biomedical science educators. The lack of training among this group of educators might need to be re-looked [16] . There are various training approaches to conduct FD programs as discussed in Table 3 Although FD has traditionally taken place through a formal program, informal learning opportunities in authentic environments is equally important [18] . However, informal learning (such as peer learning, directed self-learning, community of practice, and on-the-job training) is still not well-received in these regions. The reasons behind this could possibly investigated in future. The highly discussed topic among these countries is related to teaching and learning followed by assessment methods. This is not surprising as studies from other countries have shown the main focus of the interventions is on the improvement of teaching performance, teaching and learning approaches, and assessment [16] . While other countries also focus on educational leadership and educational scholarship, there is a need to increase attention in these areas. Steinert [19] There were several limitations in the study. First, the questionnaire response rate was not very high in each country especially in Japan. This was due to challenges in recruiting the schools to respond voluntary in one country. Next, the findings from the questionnaire may not be generalizable to the entire country due to the response rate. Although questionnaire has been sent to nine countries' representatives, only institutions from the four countries responded despite several rounds of follow-up. While the results revealed the FD program in these four countries, it should be noted that the culture and policy in each country might influence the outcome of the results which was not the main discussion in this study. In this study, the data collated from the surveys have been well-studied in these countries. As such, regional collaboration between countries in APME-Net to work hand-in-hand to address key areas of interest and develop more standardized and productive FD medical education will be ideally beneficial. However, there will always be barriers to the implementation of FD across all regions [20] . 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