95 From Critic to Inspirer 3 report of this study. However, we have no reasons to doubt that the four profiles derived from the beliefs of medical academics about teacher qualities are still current and valid. This is because we know that beliefs are relatively stable and hard to change.13 Even though their distribution may change, we surmise that teacher teams will always include these four profiles. Thirdly, we purposefully selected the participants for perceived excellence and chose for a preclinical setting. Consequently, we have to be cautious in drawing conclusions from our findings for other contexts. Further study is needed to validate the profiles described in this study to investigate their characteristics in contexts beyond those of our study. To gain more insight into the relationship between teaching behaviours of academics and their beliefs about teacher qualities, a study combining interview and observation could uncover (in)consistencies between individual medical academic’s beliefs and behaviours. Indeed, a recent mixed methods study showed a discrepancy between teacher beliefs and teacher behaviour.54 Furthermore, we recommend future research to explore whether there is a relationship between the four teacher profiles on the one hand and a teacher- versus student-centred teaching beliefs orientation on the other hand. Finally, our conclusion of the profiles’ hierarchical ordering does not imply that an individual academic will develop from a less to a more inclusive profile during his/her professional career. In the context of faculty development it would be relevant to study if academics show a shift of profile over time, and to explore the factors influencing such a shift. Practical implications We anticipate three implications for faculty development in medical schools. The first is that the six levels of the onion model (Figure 3.1) should all be taken into consideration when developing educational programmes for medical academics. At many medical schools, the focus of faculty development programmes is mainly on the levels of competencies and behaviours and not on the levels of convictions, identity and mission.13 A second implication is that the twenty subthemes that we uncovered with regard to teacher qualities could be used as an innovative tool to encourage medical academics’ self-reflection. This could be incorporated into faculty development programmes, for instance by asking academics to reflect on the main question used for the interviews in this study: what makes someone a good teacher? Their answers could be compared to the subthemes, and this
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