Teaching and Learning Philosophy in Psychiatry

This article discusses the teaching and learning philosophy in psychiatry, emphasizing the importance of mentorship and role modeling in developing clinical competencies and professionalism. It explores the impact of social interactions and different teaching methods in medical education. The author reflects on their own teaching experiences and the benefits of feedback and self-reflection. The article also highlights the role of work-based assessments and the consolidation phase in enhancing learning.

INTRODUCTION:
Philosophy is conceptualised as of what one thinks, values and believes.
Learning philosophy is very much intrinsic to the individual, and it is not easy at
all to learn one’s own philosophy. There is constant need for self-reflection. My
teaching and learning philosophy have emerged from values that are learnt from
several exposures and life experiences i.e. from my parents, my teachers, and
from own experience of working as a psychiatry trainee and doctor of medicine.
As an avid photographer, I enjoy capturing precious moments of everyday life.
They all serve as a clear illustration of the world through my eyes, often evoking
a sentimental emotion or event. The tales behind the pictures make them quite
remarkable as well.
The journey of teaching and learning is continuous and lifelong. I consider that
knowledge is inevitable and continual fragment of our daily life; being learning
from our experiences, from things, following facts and fictions along with daily
life concepts. General medical council have published guidelines on the key
importance of training, teaching and providing mentorship roles for students
and other health professionals for doctors. (Di and McEwan, 2016). The pivotal
role of mentorship is highlighted by Good Medical Practice (GMC, 2013) that
perform by us in the development of professional for junior doctors, trainees and
medical students in developing clinical competencies, attitude and
professionalism. There are some themes that can feature in my own work that
occur strongly in teaching. The first theme occurs as the understanding of
theoretical and philosophical which develops directly on the notion. From this it
can be easily transform to teaching for students. This also helps me in describing
my understanding of knowledge about learning and teaching. This helps me in in
identifying issue that come up within teaching in a more relatively manner.
Indore theme of teaching there are various demands that are needed to be
address within teaching. While providing lessons for long term basis it is
necessary to maintain flexibility so that mind of students can be open. After this,
the management while teaching also provides assessment of issues.
Having reflected on my own teaching experiences and those instilled by
numerous teachers during my training both in medicine and my specialty
(psychiatry), I feel prepared to act as a driving force to support junior trainees
and doctors in training towards a career in psychiatry. It is my preservation and
curiosity that I endeavour to be a role model for my learners.
I had many difficult encounters with patients in my medical career and with this
I can able to reflect on my capabilities both from trainee and from my
consultants’ point of view. In many ways, the duties of a photographer parallel
the meticulous work of a psychiatrist. Much as a photographer must understand
the mechanics involved in using a camera, a psychiatrist must inherently
comprehend the many factors that influence human behaviour and actions.
Photos and patients may often at first present in a certain manner; however,
there are particular details that must be uncovered to provide the complete story
behind the initial presentation.

With this analogy in mind, I have proudly used this same approach in psychiatry
in which I have greatly cherished each of my patients’ unique perspectives,
feelings, and life experiences. Simply by spending quality time with them and
addressing their fears and concerns, I have been able to successfully form strong
bonds and have enjoyed earning their friendship and trust. As a result, I am able
to explore their emotions and thoughts on a more profound level and acquire a
larger idea of their struggles, triumphs, aspirations, and fears. In addition, I have
also found that each patient encounter in which I utilized this approach only
enhanced my skills as a compassionate physician.
The clinical cases that have been reviewed by me are of many examples in which
I was able to develop a great appreciation for the field of psychiatry. This
specialty has enabled me to fully understand the true significance of
compassionate care and effective communication on a patient’s well-being. In
fact, I have never experienced continual personal gratification in helping others
as I have in this specialty. I have also come to realize that that it is crucial to
address each person as a whole, since good emotional and physical health is the
key to living a balanced life. While curing an individual’s illness is gratifying, I
find that the holistic approach to medicine in psychiatry provides the ultimate
personal and professional satisfaction. I hope these experiences will be catalyst
for positive role model for junior doctors and medical students that are attached
to my placement. There are various benefits of role model as they motivates
students to enhance their potential so that they can overcome from their
weaknesses. The function of a role model is having some attribute suggest
developing trust and relationship so that each individual can and their own
needs also by role model. The action and function of modal store in France action
so that individuals can motivate. With the help of this the effective health Care
practices can be develop. This is important to be agar within teaching so that it
can make benefits to students with their learning process.
In medical school in India, the curriculum is divided into 3 18 months terms, first
18 months the teaching being delivered by combination of lectures, power point
presentations, didactic and at times problem-based approach. There were
practical skills session also delivered. The first 18 months the subject taught
were anatomy, physiology and biochemistry; known as basic sciences. The
second 18 months were the preclinical sciences and the last 18 months being
clinical sciences. Last 36 months were hospital placements and teaching were
delivered via cased based discussion, case presentation and knowledge was
consolidated with lectures. These all experiences also impacted on my teaching
and learning practices as it includes various types of methods within teaching. It
includes PowerPoint presentation from which subject can make more
understable to students. Along with this different approaches are also used
which help in solving problems that may occur within lecture. During starting
month the lecture includes basic science which is an appropriate way of
practices from which properly knowledge can be transfer to students.

Etienne Wenger (Zhan, 2019) has written how students are influenced by social
interactions including context and the relation of its meaning with it. The
diversity of teaching methods in medical education has highlighted the need for
adopting a multi-theories model. (Taylor and Hamdy, 2013). Content based
learning underpins both the medical education and development of professional
principle guiding medical training.
SUCCESSFUL LEARNING:
I allude with Phil Race’s ‘ripples on a pond’ explanation around successful
learning experiences in adulthood. According to (Bradner and Mills, 2019) there
are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to learning. In medical education learning
is driven both by the need to learn professionally to be successful at the
examination of the royal college of psychiatrist and wanting to learn to become a
better teacher and role model for other health professionals (Pereira, 2016).
Engaging the audience, getting to understand their need for learning are
important first steps to spark their interest. This helps to transcend learning
from the teaching environment to a broader scope for learning. I generally prefer
smaller group as this is easier to engage as described by Vygotsky (1978), zone
of proximal development. I always strive to develop zone of proximal
development during my teaching sessions. As the meaning of vygotsky is that, he
believes that when students are come up within zone of proximal development
then it is necessary to provide the proper assistance that their enthusiasm can
boost up while performing any task. With the help of this theory, it has me in my
own practices by providing appropriate learning process to students so that I can
enhance and motivate them to perform a task. I also watch from the transference
and countertransference during the teaching session as it also underpins
delivery of teaching sessions. The transference is defined as the redirection
according to feeling of patient among a particular person to the practitioner.
While the countertransference refers the, redirection feelings of therapist or
practitioner towards a person and patient. Within this the emotional
entanglement among patient by therapist is occur. This too can be address and
ensure about your own countertransference. (Anderson et al, 2001) suggested
cognitive hierarchy categories that discusses competency progressions from
various stages of learning from superficial levels to developing key
understanding of concept as it moves to deeper learning. For example, I have
understood the principle behind mental capacity act and deprivation of liberty
through self-learning at training websites, supported with classroom learning
and tutorials and application of the knowledge based in scenarios as part of the
multi-disciplinary team and self-reflection whereby I learnt that decision made
in best interest of the patient can be grey. This session was originally deliver by
me with using these themes within classroom learning process. With the use of
training website through self-learning I can understand the mental capacity of
students that provide support within classroom. These teaching skills also help
in solving the potential feedback from students and this also help in reflecting
my own personal learning. There are other methods that can be used differently
than learning process in classroom that is use of different themes with the
learning process

PRACTICE BASED LEARNING:
My first experience of teaching was delivery a lecture on cardiac vascular
physiology to group of medical students during my placement as an intern at the
medical school. The teaching session was delivered as to achieve all the required
learning outcomes for training. On reflection, I would have delivered the teaching
differently, where in I would have explored medical students understanding of
the topics and have divided them into different groups and support their
learning by applying them in clinical scenarios (Waghid and et. al., 2018). I have
immensely improved as a teacher, reflecting on the constructive feedbacks both
from my students and the supervisor. (We are required to complete Assessment
of Teaching-AOT as part of the work-based assessment for the training portfolio.
The feedbacks have been useful to modulate my teaching styles, this resonates
well with Kolb cycle (1984). The feedbacks are linked with this cycle as it
provides the idea of reflective practitioner that uses with their learning process.
As the cycle have four kinds of abilities that it is necessary in context of learning.
from this the abilities of learners can be evaluated by analysing their
involvement in other learning process and experiences. The knowledge acquired
as part of the learning is continuously refined with practice (Race P, 2014).
Learning itself is an evolving process, where the knowledge and skills acquired
are constantly challenged, creating a process of ‘dissonance’; serving as a starting
point for redefining new learning (Alsager and, Omar, 2019). The process of
dissonance refers the lack of agreement between individuals. As this become an
challenge while serving new learning to students. Self-awareness is key
component for being competent teacher, and supporting individuals to identify
their learning needs. In a role of mine i see myself as a clinician-trainer to create
the dissonance sense through various modes of teaching to stimulate the need
for learning and learner’s self-reflection for identifying their learning outcomes.
CONSOLIDATED LEARNING:
I have consolidated my learning skills sets based on the constructive feedbacks
that I have received through years of my teaching experiences. The specialty of
psychiatry is very different from others, as the first experience itself can shut
some medical students down with fear and anxiety. It is important to support
them and guide through the process by practicing and supporting them. The
feedback has facilitated deep learning (Khan, Khan and Rathor, 2020). My
approach towards feedback is preferably informal as it should reinforce positive
learning and support learner’s confidence. It is likely that the learner will react
negatively to uncalled criticism, dampening learning skills. The learning can be
stimulated further by provision of environment whereby the learners have
opportunities to recall the learning within the group for further retention and as
argued by Race (Takeda, 2017) that ‘ learning is not completed until attempt is
made to reassess others learning’ and therefore I am more enthusiast for form of
informal peer assessment as part of the teaching session that is delivered. By
taking feedbacks from various students provides effective skills of an teachers
from which is it and fear of students can be minimised. This also provide support
in deep learning process among learners. Aisa use various approaches in

feedbacks that help in developing confidence and positive outcome of learning
process.
The completion of the Honey and Mumford (1986) learning style which includes
questionnaire for the course, scored highly on preference for reflector and
theorist, moderate for pragmatist and low for activist. I completely resonate with
the findings, as reflective learning helps me to understand the experience better
and in turn enhancing the work quality. As I used in my teaching process which
helps me in reflecting my own learning strategies. With the help of this the
quality of learning process is enhanced and it also can relate to my teaching
strategies that i used with learning process.
With modernisation of medical education and training, there came the process of
work-based placed assessments (WBPA) and annual review of competency
progression. (ARCP). I support my junior trainees with work-based placed
assessments as part of the teaching feedback and intended learning. I discuss
with them the benefits of reflective learning as part of the work based placed
assessments and its useful to further strengthen their learning. This echoes the
‘consolidation phase’, that serves to encourage learners to develop a habit of re-
evaluating and self-reflecting on their learning (Liu, 2018). I also resonate with
belief of Cowan’s is that ‘noteworthy matters are identified for attention”. I
complete reflective pieces for events that have conjured positive or negative
emotions. A John Dewey once said that we learn from reflection of experiences
rather than learning from experiences (John Dewey, 2020). My memorable
learning has been from the experiences so I do disagree with the first quote,
reflecting learning has indeed consolidated my skills and knowledge (Whitman
and Beeson, 2018).
CONCLUSION
Learning is a lifelong process that will go through phases of experiences,
experimentation and reflection in trying to make sense of the learning principle
and how to apply the knowledge in my teaching skills. The edge hill course,
reading around the learning theories has inspired me to develop further learning
strategies for students and develop insightful curriculum. As the development of
inside a circular is an interesting strategies that can used in learning and
teaching practices from which the confidence of students can be enhanced. From
this the further strategies in learning process can be develop which can promote
their confidence. During my own philosophy self-reflection , I have become
conscious of my values system that I actually perceived for a learner, teacher,
learning environment and teaching learning process. The module will support
my learning in the medical workplace. I will strive to be a role model for my
students and will continues to teach them in a safe learning environment. At last
I would like to state words of Alexandra trenfor is that, “The best learning
providers are those who provides the outlook but don’t tell about what to see”
(Alexandra K.Trenfor, 2020).

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