168 Chapter 6 Moreover, and strikingly, educators spontaneously referred to their role as physicians at each step when asked what had influenced their development as a teacher. Their primary motivation to be a competent teacher (Practitioner phenotype), to identify with the educational role (Role model phenotype), or to contribute to student learning (Inspirer phenotype) lay in their motivation as practising physicians to contribute to patient care. This is consistent with the results described in Chapter 3 in which we explored educators’ perspectives on being a teacher. While we asked about what makes a good teacher, educators not only indicated aspects related to educational competencies, identity, and mission, but also aspects related to competencies, identity, and mission as a physician. Thus, while it has often been reported that development as an educator is constrained by the role as a physician,14,15,27,29-31,42 we conclude that the role as a physician is also a source of motivation to develop as a teacher. A recent study on the maturation of physician-mentors also concluded that the role of mentor and clinician can mutually validate and reinforce each other.37 Finally, factors perceived to be instrumental in maturation could be categorised under intrapersonal aspects and meaningful experiences. Intrapersonal aspects refer to factors educators experienced as part of their ‘inner self.’ The relevance of the meaningful experiences is not so much the experience itself, but rather the meaning that educators assigned to the experience. The extent to which the two categories play a role, as well as which factors are seen as contributing to maturation, vary by phenotype. Thus, the educator who matured to the Practitioner phenotype attributed his maturation primarily to meaningful experiences, such as tasks and activities which had helped him to develop more effective competencies as a teacher. The educators who matured to the Role model phenotype attributed their maturation primarily to intrapersonal aspects, such as being reflective on the ‘self’ and on the teacher role, which had helped them to become more self-aware of their educational identity. The educators who matured to the Inspirer phenotype attributed and related both categories of factors to their maturation. For example, they indicated that they had become aware of the importance of learning to remain silent in order to listen more closely to what a patient or student had to say. They linked this intrapersonal aspect to meaningful experiences, such as encounters with indigent patients. The combination of these factors had helped shift their focus from themselves to their patients and their students, and had been influential in the development of their mission to contribute to student learning. They articulated, for example, the mission to help students become aware of the importance of philosophical, spiritual, ethical or societal medical issues. This finding is consistent
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