42 Chapter 2 METHODS In order to address our research question we conducted a qualitative study using in-depth semi-structured interviews. We interviewed 26 medical educators from two medical schools, all working on preclinical curriculum, with the aim to identify the participants’ characteristic educational beliefs. We used a variety of strategies to enhance the quality of our results.20 This study is part of a larger research project that explores the longitudinal development of the beliefs of medical educators about teaching, learning, knowledge, and teacher qualities. In this study we report outcomes of the baseline study conducted in 2008– 2010 with regard to beliefs about teaching, learning, and knowledge. Participants and setting We opted for a wide variety of participants in our sampling. For this reason, two prominent medical schools from different continents were chosen. We selected thirteen faculty members from each school, five teaching basic science topics, five teaching clinical topics and three with roles at the highest educational administrative level with teaching experience, nearly all of them being physicians. One reason for focusing on physicians is that at both SUSM and LUMC, the majority of educators are physicians, including those who teach basic science subjects. Another reason is related to the belief dimension about student’s professional development. Having a patient-care role next to the other academic roles, we anticipated that physicians may be more likely than non-physicians to model this aspect of the professional identity formation of students. Selection of participants took place on the recommendation of a senior educator and sub-dean from the respective medical schools, and was based on faculty members’ active educational involvement, student evaluations of teaching performance, and teaching awards won by faculty. These selection criteria were chosen because we anticipated that the faculty participants would be most information-rich and their experiences illuminating (critical case sampling21). With the exception of one educator, all participants had at least ten years of teaching experience, with an average of 21 years. Only one out of the 26 originally selected medical educators was not able to participate and was replaced by another medical educator who met the criteria. The two medical schools involved were Stanford University School of Medicine (SUSM), California, USA, and Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), Leiden, The Netherlands. Both schools can be classified as research-intensive
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