Good teacher, good tutor

Dear editor

We have read with great interest the paper by Kassab et al¹, who have essentially shown that good teachers will be good tutors in a problem-based learning (PBL) environment. We have been facing great difficulties to select tutors because there has been no tradition in PBL in our region in the preuniversity teaching. Furthermore, the majority of our teachers have been formed in a discipline-based medical curriculum.² Therefore, it is reassuring to learn from the work by Kassab et al¹ that subject-matter mastery is the powerful independent predictor of tutoring skills.

This fact parallels, at least in part, our students’ positive opinion about the impact of subject-matter expert tutors to guide the learning process, thus helping them to construct their medical learning.³ In fact, it has been demonstrated that self-directed study is the most important part of the tutorial session, which leads to retention of knowledge in long-term memory.⁴ Therefore, good teachers, by activating prior knowledge and making clear gaps in knowledge through interactive lessons and by encouraging learning based on their experience on the subject during lectures, will certainly have enough competence to motivate students to seek information in self-directed study to solve problems in tutorial sessions.

Lectures are not commonly delivered in PBL medical teaching approach. Kassab et al¹ also support our view that lectures may help to promote learning in a PBL environment. In our course, we have provided students with selected lectures at the pre-clerkship stage. Importantly, such lectures have been delivered following the reporting phase of a tutorial session in the problem-solving process, usually four classes per module, and summarize the concepts related to the problems at hand. In this situation, apart from the discussion and integration of new acquired learning in the problem-solving process, students still have to undergo a written assessment through multiple-choice tests following the reporting phase, which by itself drives learning.⁵ Therefore, at the time of a lecture, students have a great deal of intrinsic motivation to attend such classes and to learn.

Another important point that deserves further consideration is the association of teacher’s capacity of creating a relaxed atmosphere during a lecture and tutoring skills.¹ This teacher will certainly be able to stimulate a favorable environment during a tutorial session for learning. In addition, by more interaction and better communication with students, he or she will lead to a favorable learning process.⁶ The same can be said regarding the ability of a lecturer to use audiovisual aids, another independent predictor of tutoring skills. As Kassab et al¹ suggest, teachers who use audiovisual guides in lectures can help students to structure knowledge by constructing concept maps. This is very important because not all schools rely on this step in the tutorial session. We have been using this tool over the last 12 years, and the data by Kassab et al¹ lend support to this approach. In conclusion, the paper by Kassab et al¹ shows that good teachers will be good tutors. We agree with that.