The relationship between teachers' confidence and use of clinical teaching skills in ambulatory care settings

Background: As medical schools expand their teaching programs into ambulatory care settings, faculty must learn to use new and more effective reaching skills. They must therefore be convinced of the importance of those skills and confident in using them. Purpose: Teachers' confidence in their own teaching abilities (i.e., self-efficacy) is examined in this study. Methods: We surveyed 145 primary care faculty about their feelings of confidence in and use of 28 specific teaching skills. Results: Faculty self-ratings indicated that they were less confident in using learning-enhancing teaching skills than in using supervisory behaviors that focus on patient care. Degree of confidence was most strongly associated with self-ratings of frequency of use; physician experience and estimated length of time spent in teaching encounters did not mediate this relation. These findings suggest that physicians' teaching behaviors may depend largely on their self-confidence. Conclusions: We suggest that teacher attitudes and beliefs about their ability to perform actions that promote learning, a concept known as teacher self-efficacy, may affect the choice and use of teaching behaviors.