Cross-cultural faculty development: Initial report of an American/Russian experience

Background: Faculty development programs can improve the teaching skills of medical teachers. We pilot-tested the transportability of an American-based faculty development seminar program to a Russian academic medical center. Description: Four seminars, based on the 7 categories of the Stanford Faculty Development Program model, were presented to 14 teachers at Kazan State Medical University. The seminars included minilectures and reviews of actual videotaped teaching scenario reenactments. Evaluation was performed through participants' self-reported ratings of teaching ability based on a validated pretest-posttest questionnaire. Measurements at both 1 month and 12 months postintervention were completed. Evaluation: All 14 participants completed the evaluation. At both measured times, statistically significant improvements in the ratings of global teaching performance and specific teaching behaviors were reported. Conclusions: Our faculty development intervention was successfully transported across medical systems and demonstrated a positive, lasting affect on the teaching skills of a small number of Russian medical teachers.