Teaching and Teacher Education for Health Professionals: Perspectives on Quality and Outlook of Health Professionals Education in Zambia

Abstract

assurance benchmark by the School. This result suggests that a large proportion of teaching staff could benefit from teacher education. Four hundred and four questionnaires were completed and returned out of the 426 that had been distributed, yielding a response rate of 94.8 %. The Cronbach's alpha for reliability test was 0.62-0.70 on the teaching skills sub-scale and 0.76-0.78 on the Educational skills sub-scale. The majority, over 85%, acknowledged they lacked expertise in educational skills and that they would enrol in a programme to improve their educational skills. There was overwhelming (>90%) agreement in topics to be covered. Limitations: Quality of teaching contributions only measured at school of medicine; Large proportion of educators' survey were not full-time teaching staff. Implications: The belief that professional qualifications are sufficient for preparation for teaching health professionals is now being confronted. Formal systems of teacher education in the health professions have emerged worldwide and are now also available in Zambia.