Determination of factors affecting teaching styles of faculty members at Süleyman Demirel University Daculty of medicine

Teaching styles of faculty in medical schools have not been investigated in detail. The current study aims to determine teaching styles of medical school faculty members and to investigate factors affecting these styles. For this purpose, Grasha Riechmann Teaching Style Inventory that defines five major styles (expert, formal authority, personal model, facilitator, and delegator) based on the role of mentor during teaching process was conducted, including the entire faculty of our medical school. Variables such as gender, age, academic discipline, academic title, term of employment as faculty member, attendance to medical education courses, and employment priorities were questioned. Chi-square test, student?s t-test, Kruskal Wallis test, and logistic regression were used for statistical analyses. There were 102 faculty members, who agreed to participate (rate, 82.3%) and completed the entire Grasha Riechmann Teaching Style Inventory. The mean age of the faculty members was 43(±6) years with male gender and internist predominance. The participants indicated ?education? as their primary assignment; however allocated most of their time to ?provide service? under current work circumstances. Group 1 (expert / formal authority / personal model, 40.3%) and group 4 (expert / facilitator / delegator, 22.5%) were most common teaching styles. ?Teacher-centered? styles were more frequent than ?student-centered? styles. Statistical analyses yielded no single factor significantly affecting any teaching style. In conclusion, most of the faculty members in our medical school have teacher-centered styles. Teaching styles are not to be independent from the nurture and educational background of the mentor and the educational climate of the mentor?s institution. Therefore, future studies investigating teaching styles in association with these variables are warranted.