Institute for Medical Education
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Faculty DevelopmentEducational Leadership ConferenceAn annual event sponsored by the Institute, the Educational Leadership Conference has a new theme each year. The goal of the conference is to provide an annual faculty development retreat for all course directors, clerkship directors, deans, and other educational leaders at Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM) and its affiliate institutions. The conference provides a forum to address the most challenging aspects of their roles and exchange ideas with their colleagues. It also enhances communication among those who play key instructional roles in the undergraduate and graduate programs at MSSM, inspires and encourages our teachers, links colleagues and resources, and introduces new topics and ideas. In 2002, our first conference, titled Focus on Educational Leadership, served as an introduction of the Institute and its goals to more than 50 course and clerkship directors from Mount Sinai and its affiliates. The second annual conference was held on June 2, 2003. The conference theme was Evaluation which was discussed from various perspectives including evaluation of students, educational programs, and the entire medical school curriculum. New methods of evaluation were introduced and in small groups, participants had a chance to work on implementing new evaluation strategies in their own courses and clerkships. We also provided "Experiential Workshops" that were one hour focused sessions on a topic chosen prior to the conference. The 2004 conference focused on the process of content reform and faculty helped to create the current guidelines the school is using for our content review process. In 2005 the theme was Identifying Challenges, Finding Solutions. The full-day event included a keynote address by Dr. Isabella Knox, Associate Dean for Faculty Development at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, on "Concept Mapping". Faculty also participated in small groups where they identified important challenges in their roles as educators and discussed practical strategies to address these challenges. Compiled data from the first three years of the conference show that, of participants who completed evaluations, 89 percent felt that the conference was valuable in their roles as educators and 92 percent found the retreat to be a productive means of exchanging ideas with colleagues. Many faculty agreed that the most valuable aspect of the day is interacting with other educators and exchanging ideas. Conference Agendas |
