Teaching & Lesson Plans
Because winging it is fine — until the session runs 40 minutes over and nobody can remember what you were trying to teach.
📥 Downloads
Handouts, templates, and teaching extras — ready when you are. Includes lesson plan templates (simple and detailed), presentation planning guides, and checklists for before-the-day preparation.
path: TEACHING & LESSON PLANS
🌐 Web Resources
A hand-picked mix of official guidance and real-world GP teaching resources. Because the best wisdom is not always hiding in official documents.
NHS England — Introduction to the NHS
Overview of NHS structure and patient participation. Useful for contextualising GP training.
The National Archives — Origins of the NHS
Historical background to the NHS — helpful context for IMGs and those teaching NHS history.
RCGP — Training & Exams
The definitive source for GP training requirements, curriculum, and assessment expectations.
GMC — Postgraduate Education
GMC's requirements for postgraduate medical education, including teaching responsibilities.
BJGP — Tips for GP Trainees in Medical Education
A practical, peer-reviewed guide to lesson planning and teaching for GP trainees. Highly recommended.
Higher Education Academy (Advance HE)
Resources on pedagogy, constructive alignment, and evidence-based teaching strategies.
ASME — Association for the Study of Medical Education
UK's leading professional body for medical educators. Annual conference, resources, and networks.
TeacherToolkit — What Is Stickability?
The original source on "stickability" — the concept of making learning genuinely last. Worth five minutes of your life.
HEE — GP Trainees Teaching Medical Students
Practical resource on how trainees can organise and deliver teaching sessions in primary care.
University of Arkansas — Using Bloom's Taxonomy
Clear, practical guide to writing learning objectives using Bloom's — with verb tables you can use immediately.
Imperial College London — GP Teaching Development
Courses and resources for GPs who teach undergraduate students. Includes coaching skills for educators.
PMC — Teaching Tips for GP Trainees (Full Article)
Free full-text version of the BJGP article on planning, delivering, and evaluating teaching sessions.
⚡ Quick Summary — If You Only Read One Thing
- A lesson plan is your roadmap. It stops sessions from drifting into chaos and helps you deliver on what you set out to teach.
- Start with learning outcomes (ILOs). Every activity, every resource, every question should connect back to them. This is called Constructive Alignment.
- Know your learners first. Where are they starting from? What do they already know? Pitch too low and they disengage. Pitch too high and they switch off.
- Use a variety of teaching methods. People learn in different ways. A mix of visuals, discussion, demonstration, and activity keeps everyone engaged.
- Build in flexibility. Things always take longer than you plan. Leave breathing room in your timings or something will have to be cut.
- Stickability is the goal. Ask yourself: will this session be remembered next week? If not, redesign it so the key message truly lands.
- Reflect afterwards. Tick what worked, note what didn't. Your next session will be better because of it.
💡 Why This Matters in GP Training
Teaching is part of the RCGP curriculum and a GMC requirement. But it's also just one of those things that's more rewarding when it goes well — and lesson planning is what makes that happen consistently.
Clarity of Purpose
Without ILOs, sessions drift. With them, every activity earns its place.
Time Management
Unplanned sessions routinely overrun. A plan gives you a framework to keep things on track.
Better Learning
Planned sessions lead to more memorable learning. The structure itself aids retention.
Inclusive for All Learners
Planning helps you cater for different learning styles, including IMGs who may be unfamiliar with UK-specific contexts.
Portfolio Evidence
Documented lesson plans with reflection provide excellent evidence for the FourteenFish ePortfolio under Teaching & Learning capabilities.
Continuous Improvement
A plan you reflect on becomes better next time. It turns one-off sessions into a growing body of teaching skill.
📖 What Is a Teaching Lesson Plan?
A lesson plan — sometimes called a teaching plan or session plan — is a structured description of the individual components of a teaching session. Think of it as a learning roadmap: it shows where you're starting, where you're heading, and how you'll get there.
Lesson plans vary in detail depending on who is teaching, what is being taught, and who the learners are. But the core purpose is always the same: to turn a session idea into a structured educational experience with a clear purpose and a coherent path.
Don't think of it as a form-filling exercise
Many educators resist lesson planning because it feels bureaucratic. Flip that. Think of it as your thought process made visible — a tool that helps you design something genuinely educational rather than just filling time.
The Four Core Questions Every Lesson Plan Answers
Where are the learners starting from?
What do they already know? What experience do they have? What gaps exist? You need to understand the learner's baseline before you can design anything meaningful.
Where do you want them to get to?
What are the Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)? Be specific. Vague goals lead to vague learning. "Understand diabetes" is not an ILO. "Explain the NICE criteria for initiating metformin in T2DM" is.
How will you help them get there?
Which teaching methods, activities, and resources will move learners from start to finish in a way that genuinely works? This is where most of your planning energy goes.
How will you know when they've arrived?
What counts as evidence that the learning has occurred? This could be a quiz, a role-play, a group discussion, or simply well-answered questions at the end.
The Golden Rule: Constructive Alignment
Constructive Alignment (Biggs, 1996) is the most important idea in lesson planning. It means your teaching activities and your assessment both point directly at your intended learning outcomes. When all three are lined up, learning happens efficiently. When they're misaligned, students learn the wrong things — or nothing much at all.
Misalignment in practice — a very common trap
You ask learners to apply clinical reasoning in a roleplay (a high-order activity), but your ILO was to list the features of a disease (a low-order knowledge outcome). Nobody wins. Write your ILOs first, then build everything else around them.
Bloom's Taxonomy — Writing ILOs That Actually Work
Bloom's Taxonomy (1956, revised 2001) gives you a framework for writing ILOs at the right level for your learners. It describes a hierarchy of cognitive skills — from simple recall at the bottom to complex creation at the top.
Practical tip: Write ILOs with action verbs
Choose a verb that matches the level you want. "By the end of this session, the learner will be able to [verb]…" Examples: list (remember), explain (understand), apply the NICE hypertension guideline (apply), compare two management options (analyse), justify a prescribing decision (evaluate).
What Makes a Successful Lesson Plan? The Five Essentials
1️⃣ Clear ILOs
Understand and clearly define your Intended Learning Outcomes before you do anything else. Everything in the session exists to serve them.
2️⃣ Right Content
Know what content is required for those ILOs. Not everything you know. Not everything that's interesting. What is required.
3️⃣ Varied Methods
Understand the range of teaching methods available and choose deliberately. Use more than one method per session.
4️⃣ Everything Maps Back
Every component — every activity, every question, every exercise — must trace back to an ILO. If it doesn't, cut it.
5️⃣ Rest Periods & Energy Management
Build in energising moments and rest periods. Learning embeds best when the brain has moments to consolidate. Non-stop content delivery is the enemy of retention.
Planning Your Session — Section by Section
Without clear aims and ILOs, your session will be unstructured and your learners will lose track of where they are at any point. Here's how to build solid ILOs:
- Get to know your learners first. What do they already know? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
- Map out their learning needs. Use multiple sources of information — observations, questions, self-assessment — to build a reliable picture.
- Write ILOs using Bloom's action verbs (list, explain, apply, compare, justify). Avoid vague terms like "understand" or "appreciate" — you can't easily assess them.
- Less is more. Two or three clear, achievable ILOs are far more powerful than eight vague ones. Over-ambitious ILO lists lead to cognitive overload and disengaged learners.
- Make ILOs relevant. Learners who can see why something matters to them in real GP practice are far more motivated to engage.
The first five minutes are critical. If you haven't engaged people by then, you're fighting an uphill battle for the rest of the session.
- Make the ILOs immediately relevant. Open with a real clinical scenario or question that shows why this matters. "Has anyone seen a patient this week who…?"
- Use an ice-breaker or energising activity — especially for groups who don't know each other well, or early-morning sessions.
- Establish prior knowledge quickly. A quick "what do you already know about X?" sets the right pitch and makes learners feel involved from the outset.
- Avoid starting with a long presentation slide. Passive listening at the very start of a session is a guaranteed engagement killer.
Time management is one of the most common session problems. Here's how to plan realistically:
- Map out each activity with a time estimate — but don't be rigid. Something always takes longer than expected.
- Build in buffer time. A good rule: plan for 80% of the available time. The last 20% is your safety net for discussions that run long, questions, and reflection.
- Plan refreshment breaks deliberately. A short break every 45–60 minutes significantly improves attention and retention. When is lunch? You can never have too many breaks.
- Allow time for preparation, action, and review in every component — not just the "teaching" itself.
- Have a contingency plan. If an activity runs over, what will you cut? Know this in advance so you're not making panicked decisions mid-session.
These feel like small details — until they go wrong at 8:55am when your session starts at 9:00am.
- List equipment for each activity. Flip chart, pens (working ones), laptop, cables, HDMI adapter, presentation remote, printed handouts.
- Consider room layout. Chairs in small circles for discussion. Tables removed for role-play. Rows for presentations. The room layout signals to learners what kind of session this is going to be.
- If you have an administrator, brief them clearly and in advance — layout, IT requirements, refreshments, printed materials.
- Check IT the day before. Projectors, Wi-Fi, video conferencing software for hybrid sessions. Never assume it will work on the day.
- For multi-educator sessions, a Facilitator's Guide is usually essential — each facilitator needs to know their role, their timing, and what they're doing when.
A little pre-emptive thinking at the planning stage can prevent a disastrous session.
- If you're unsure an activity will work, trial it mentally or with a colleague before the session — not on the day.
- Consider learner-related problems: What if nobody contributes? What if the group is much more or less knowledgeable than expected?
- Consider activity-related problems: What if the role-play goes on too long? What if a scenario generates an unexpectedly heated discussion?
- Consider teacher-related problems: What if you run out of content early? What if you're asked a question you can't answer?
- Have a backup activity for every session — something engaging that can fill 10–15 minutes if you finish ahead of time.
- Have a printed or visible plan in front of you throughout the session — not just on your laptop.
- Tick off activities as you complete them. This keeps you on track and prevents the mid-session "where were we?" moment.
- Note anything that works especially well — you'll want to do it again.
- Note anything that doesn't work — timing, activity design, instructions that were unclear — so you can improve it next time.
- Collect feedback at the end. Post-it notes, a one-question show of hands, or a brief group discussion all work better than a generic feedback form.
- Reflect shortly after the session while it's still fresh. Add comments to your plan. This reflection is also excellent FourteenFish ePortfolio evidence.
🎓 Choosing the Right Teaching Method
One of the most powerful decisions in lesson planning. Different activities teach the same content in different ways — and reach different learners. The best sessions use a deliberate mix of methods.
VARK Learning Styles — Who's in Your Room?
Most groups contain learners with different preferences. A session that only uses one method will engage some people and lose others. Use this as a guide to mix things up.
Visual
- Diagrams and flowcharts
- Whiteboard drawing
- Videos and images
- Colour-coded tables
Auditory
- Group discussion
- Verbal explanation
- Question and answer
- Think-pair-share
Read/Write
- Handouts and notes
- Case-based reading
- Written exercises
- Structured summaries
Kinaesthetic
- Role-play and simulation
- Skills demonstrations
- Practical case work
- Hands-on problem-solving
Teaching Methods Comparison
| Method | Best For | Challenge Level | Engagement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Didactic Lecture | Delivering information to large groups efficiently | Low | ⭐⭐ |
| Case-Based Discussion | Clinical reasoning, applying knowledge to real scenarios | Medium–High | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Role-Play / Simulation | Communication skills, consultation practice, SCA preparation | High | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Small Group Discussion | Exploring attitudes, ethics, professional issues | Medium | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Problem-Based Learning (PBL) | Deep exploration of a complex topic | High | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Video + Debrief | Observing and analysing practice, consultation review | Medium | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Quiz / Gamification | Knowledge recall, energising the group, AKT revision | Low–Medium | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Flipped Classroom | Using session time for application rather than information delivery | Medium–High | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Peer Teaching | Consolidating knowledge; excellent for the person who teaches | High | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
The engagement rule
If there's no challenge, there's no real learning. Make sure your session asks something of your learners, not just of yourself. If you're doing all the work, something's wrong.
📈 The Attention Curve — Plan Around It
Learner attention is not constant. It rises at the start, drops in the middle, and picks up again at the end. This is one of the most useful things you can know when planning a teaching session — and one of the most frequently ignored.
The first 10 minutes — use them well
Attention is at its highest here. This is where your most important concept, your hook, or your case vignette belongs. Do not waste this window on housekeeping, apologies about running over, or a slow recitation of ILOs.
The middle sag — plan an energiser
Around the 20–30 minute mark, learners naturally drift. Build in something active here — a short discussion, a quiz question, a case to discuss in pairs. This is not padding. It is neuroscience.
The final rise — the primacy-recency effect
People remember what came first and what came last far better than what came in the middle. Plan your session so the most important message appears twice — once at the start (as a hook) and once at the end (as a summary). Everything in the middle supports those two anchor points.
🪄 Stickability — Making Learning Last
"Outstanding lessons focus on the learning — not the activity." Stickability is the ability of a learning experience to persist beyond the session itself. The best lesson plans are designed with stickability as the primary goal, not content coverage.
The spaced repetition advantage
If learners encounter the same information in different forms across different sessions, retention dramatically increases. Consider designing sessions that intentionally revisit earlier material — not to repeat it, but to extend and apply it at a higher level of Bloom's.
In UK GP training, the Half-Day Release (HDR) is the weekly structured teaching session — usually held on a Wednesday morning or afternoon. It is where GP trainees from across the patch come together to learn. You will be expected to contribute, and sometimes to present. Here is what experienced trainees and GP educators say about making the most of it.
When It's Your Turn to Present at HDR
Many trainees are asked to present a teaching session at HDR. The following timeline maps out the ideal preparation journey.
weeks
before
Choose your topic wisely
Pick something you've seen in clinic recently, something you find genuinely interesting, or something you know the group needs. Sessions built from real cases land far better than sessions built from textbooks. If you're weak in an area — even better. Teaching it will fix that quickly.
before
Write your ILOs first — before you touch your slides
Most trainees open PowerPoint first and write ILOs last. This is backwards. Decide what learners should be able to do by the end, then build around those outcomes. Keep it to two or three ILOs maximum for a 20–30 minute session.
days
before
Plan your structure — then choose your methods
Map out how the session will flow: opening hook → core content → interactive activity → summary → questions. Choose methods that match your ILOs. If your ILO requires application, a case discussion or role-play will serve better than a lecture.
days
before
Build and time your session
Run through it aloud to yourself. Most people underestimate how long activities take when a group is involved. A session that takes you 15 minutes to rehearse alone will take 25–30 minutes with real people in the room. Add buffer time deliberately.
before
Sort logistics — room, IT, handouts
Check that your slides work on the venue's setup. Print handouts if needed. Confirm room layout if you're doing small group work. Arriving to discover the projector is the wrong aspect ratio at 8:55am is memorable for all the wrong reasons.
day
Start strong — and collect feedback at the end
Open with your case or hook, not a slide of housekeeping. At the end, ask learners for one thing that worked well and one thing that could be improved. Post-it notes on the wall work brilliantly for this. Write your reflections up as a FourteenFish ePortfolio entry that same evening.
The HDR golden rule from experienced trainees
The sessions that trainees remember most are never the ones where someone read from slides for 30 minutes. They are the ones where the presenter brought a genuinely puzzling case from their own clinic, said "I didn't know what to do — let's work it out together", and ran a discussion. Vulnerability and honesty about uncertainty is one of the most powerful teaching tools available to you.
Do This — Not That: HDR Presentation Edition
✅ Do This
- Start with a real case from your own clinic
- Ask the group questions early — get them talking
- Use a case-based discussion or a small group activity
- Summarise the key message clearly at the end
- Invite questions — and sit with the silence that follows
- Time your session in advance, including discussion
- Collect feedback — even just one question at the end
- Reflect and log in FourteenFish ePortfolio the same day
❌ Not That
- Open with "Sorry, I wasn't sure what to do for this…"
- Read directly from dense slides
- Try to cover every aspect of a topic in 20 minutes
- Spend the last 5 minutes rushing through your most important points
- Assume no one will ask questions — they always do
- Use font size 10 on slides because "there's so much to cover"
- Skip the summary because you ran over time
- Forget to document it for your ePortfolio
🤝 Near-Peer Teaching in GP Training
Near-peer teaching is when someone who is only slightly further along in training teaches someone a step behind them. In GP training, this means an ST3 teaching an ST1, or a registrar teaching a medical student. Research consistently shows this is one of the most effective forms of teaching in primary care — for both the teacher and the learner.
The teacher learns most
You understand a topic far more deeply after teaching it than after reading about it. If you have a clinical weak area, teaching a session on it is one of the fastest ways to fix that gap.
Cognitive proximity
Near-peers explain things in the language of someone who has recently been in the same place. They know what confused them. This makes their explanations land in a way that consultant-level teaching sometimes cannot.
Cultural safety
Learners often feel safer asking questions to someone closer in career stage. Near-peer groups tend to have richer discussion and more honest exploration of uncertainty than hierarchical teaching settings.
Portfolio gold
Teaching a peer, documenting a lesson plan, and reflecting on the session gives you rich FourteenFish ePortfolio evidence for teaching and learning capabilities — often more so than attending yet another passive lecture.
The research problem — trainees teach less as they get more senior
Multiple UK studies have found that GP trainees actually reduce their teaching involvement as they progress through training — the opposite of what you might expect. In GP rotations, trainees often fall into the role of learner within a hierarchical structure and stop seeing themselves as teachers. If you are in ST3, this is worth knowing. You are not just a trainee any more. You have a great deal to offer to those coming behind you — and to yourself.
Near-Peer Teaching Opportunities in Primary Care
A simple strategy that works in practice
If you have a medical student sitting in with you, give them a specific task rather than just observing. Ask them to take a history independently while you observe, then debrief together. Five minutes of guided reflection after a real consultation is worth more educationally than an hour of passive watching — for both of you.
These insights are drawn from recurring patterns in UK GP training communities — the kinds of things trainees consistently say once they've been through the experience of planning and delivering a teaching session for the first time. They do not conflict with RCGP or official guidance. In fact, they bring that guidance to life.
What GP Trainees Find Hardest When Teaching
Based on recurring themes from UK GP training research and trainee accounts
Lessons Learned the Hard Way
These are the things trainees consistently wish someone had told them before their first teaching session.
💬 A Note for International Medical Graduates (IMGs)
If you trained outside the UK, teaching may feel very different here. In many countries, the teacher holds the knowledge and delivers it. The learner listens, takes notes, and respects the teacher's authority. UK GP training works quite differently — and knowing this in advance makes the transition much easier.
- Learners challenge ideas — this is good, not disrespectful
- Teachers say "I don't know — let's find out" — this builds trust
- Discussion is valued over information delivery
- The learner's agenda matters as much as the teacher's plan
- Facilitation is the gold standard — not lecturing
- Start with a question, not a statement
- Plan for 50% of session time to be learner-led activity
- Practice sitting with silence after a question
- Check understanding frequently — don't assume
- Build relationships with learners before expecting challenge
Your international background is a strength, not a weakness
IMGs bring diverse clinical experiences and perspectives that UK-trained peers simply do not have. Sharing a case from your previous country of practice — and exploring how management might differ in the UK NHS — can make for a genuinely memorable and enriching teaching session. Lean into it.
🩺 Practical Shortcuts That Actually Work
The "One Patient" Technique
Build your entire session around one real patient case you've seen. Start with the presenting complaint. Let the group work through history, examination, differentials, and management as if they're the GP. Everything the session needs to teach will emerge naturally from that one case — without a single slide required.
The "Three Questions" Opening
Begin every session with three quick questions to the group: What do you already know about this topic? What confuses you? What would you most like to leave knowing? This takes two minutes, tells you exactly how to pitch the session, and makes every learner feel heard before you've taught a single thing.
The "Exit Ticket"
At the end of the session, ask each person to write down one thing they will do differently in clinic next week as a result of this session. Collect them. Read them. If nobody can name something, your session was informative but not transformative. That is useful feedback for next time.
The "Teach Your Weak Area" Strategy
Whenever you have a topic in your PDP that you feel shaky on, volunteer to teach a session on it at HDR or in a tutorial. The preparation process will force you to understand it properly. The group discussion will expose the gaps you didn't know you had. You will leave the session stronger in that topic than you went in.
The single most repeated lesson from GP training educators
If you ask any GP trainer or TPD what separates a good teaching session from a forgettable one, the answer is almost always the same: the best sessions are ones where the teacher is genuinely curious — not performing. They bring a question they haven't fully resolved, they bring a case that puzzled them, and they let the group help them think. That kind of teaching is impossible to fake and impossible to forget.
⚠️ Common Pitfalls — Things That Catch People Out
🪤 Too many ILOs
- Five objectives in a 45-minute session is a recipe for cognitive overload.
- One or two strong, achievable ILOs will serve learners far better than an over-ambitious list.
- When everything is prioritised, nothing is.
🪤 ILOs written after the session is already designed
- The most common planning mistake. If you design activities first and ILOs second, your session isn't aligned — it's just a series of things that feel related.
- Always start with the ILOs. Always.
🪤 Only one teaching method — usually talking
- If a trainee is doing a tutorial and their plan is "I'll talk about diabetes for 45 minutes," it will not go well.
- Mix methods deliberately. Role-play and case-based discussion are the highest-engagement methods for GP training — use them.
🪤 No time for preparation, consolidation, or closure
- Many plans allocate all time to "content delivery" and leave nothing for the learner to reflect, summarise, or ask questions.
- The last 5–10 minutes of a session are educationally the most important. Do not sacrifice them to running over time.
🪤 Forgetting about the room and equipment
- Arriving to find the projector doesn't work, there are no pens for the flip chart, or the room is set up as a lecture theatre when you planned small group work.
- Sort these the day before. Not at 8:58am.
🪤 No contingency thinking
- What if the activity you planned simply doesn't land? What if the group is quieter or louder than expected?
- Having even one backup activity or extension question means you're never caught completely flat-footed.
🪤 Not reflecting afterwards
- The session is done. Don't just pack up and leave. Five minutes of reflection notes immediately after the session will improve your next one significantly.
- This reflection also counts as valuable FourteenFish ePortfolio evidence for teaching and learning.
✅ Lesson Plan Checklist
Run through this before your session. Tick anything that isn't sorted — then go and sort it.
- ILOs written before any content planning
- ILOs written with Bloom's action verbs
- Learner baseline established
- Session length realistic for ILO count
- Teaching methods match ILOs and learner needs
- All activities map to at least one ILO
- Timings allocated and summed
- Buffer time built in
- Contingency activity ready
- Room layout confirmed in advance
- Equipment list checked
- IT checked the day before
- Handouts/resources printed or ready
- Facilitator's guide written (if multi-educator)
- Refreshment breaks planned
- Feedback method decided
- Post-session reflection planned
- FourteenFish ePortfolio entry planned
🔬 Trainer & Teaching Pearls
For GP trainers, TPDs, and educators supporting trainees who are learning to teach.
🟣 Support trainees in learning to teach
- Trainees often receive no formal training in how to teach. Consider making "how to plan a teaching session" the topic of an early tutorial.
- Ask a trainee to produce a lesson plan for a half-day release session. Use the plan as the basis for the tutorial itself — it's a rich discussion prompt.
- Trainees who teach a topic invariably understand it far more deeply afterwards. Peer teaching is powerful for the teacher as well as the learner.
🟣 Common trainee blind spots when they plan
- Writing ILOs in generic, unmeasurable language. Help them rewrite using Bloom's verbs.
- Planning far too much content for the available time. Challenge them: "If you could only teach one thing from this session, what would it be?"
- Defaulting to "I'll just explain it" — help them see the value of activities and discussion over monologue.
- Forgetting to include a closing consolidation activity. End of session = reinforcement opportunity. Don't waste it.
🟣 Tutorial ideas and discussion prompts
- "Plan a 20-minute teaching session for a medical student on a topic you've recently seen in clinic. Show me the plan before the session."
- "Review this lesson plan together: what's well-aligned? What isn't? How would you improve it?"
- "Watch this video of a teaching session. What was the ILO? Was it achieved? What method was used? Was it the best method?"
- "What's the difference between an activity that's educational and one that's just entertaining? Give me an example of each."
🟣 Linking teaching to the RCGP curriculum
- Teaching and learning activities documented in the FourteenFish ePortfolio support the Teaching, Mentoring and Clinical Supervision capability.
- Observed teaching sessions and lesson plan reflections are valuable evidence for competence demonstration at ESR and ARCP.
- Encourage trainees to log both their teaching preparation and their post-session reflection as separate entries.
💎 Insider Pearls — What Trainees Say
The "just one thing" rule
The most experienced teachers often say the same thing: if you have one crystal-clear message that you want every person in the room to leave with, your session will be better than 90% of what gets delivered at half-day releases. Most sessions try to teach too much and end up teaching nothing with any depth.
The first three minutes are everything
Learners decide very quickly whether this session is going to be worth their attention. A provocative question, a real case, or even a brief energiser in the first three minutes sets the tone for the next hour. Start with a bang, not a slide of learning objectives.
Your plan is not a script
A plan is a map, not a set of train tracks. The best sessions are ones where an educator follows the spirit of the plan while responding to what the learners actually need in the moment. If everyone is clearly lost, stop and explain. If everyone is deeply engaged in discussion, let it run a little longer than planned. Flexibility within structure is the mark of an experienced educator.
Silence is not a problem — it's evidence of thinking
Trainees who are new to teaching often feel compelled to fill every second of silence during a discussion. Resist it. When you ask a genuinely challenging question, silence means learners are actually thinking. Count to eight before doing anything. The discomfort is yours, not theirs.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Not necessarily. The level of detail depends on your experience, the complexity of the session, and whether others are involved. A simple one-page template with ILOs, activities, timing, and resources is more than sufficient for most GP training sessions. A highly detailed plan is most useful when: the session is complex, multiple facilitators are involved, you're unfamiliar with the topic, or it's your first time teaching.
For a typical 45–60 minute session, one to three focused ILOs is usually ideal. More than three risks cognitive overload and surface-level coverage of everything. It is far better to explore two ILOs in genuine depth — with discussion, application, and consolidation — than to race through eight ILOs with no time for any of them to land properly.
An aim is a broad statement of what you're trying to achieve overall: "To improve trainees' approach to managing hypertension in primary care." An ILO is a specific, measurable outcome for the learner: "By the end of this session, the learner will be able to identify when to step up antihypertensive treatment according to NICE guidance." Aims give direction. ILOs give precision. You need both.
Yes. Teaching activity can be logged in the FourteenFish ePortfolio as evidence for the Teaching, Mentoring and Clinical Supervision capability. An observed teaching session (with a completed learning log and brief reflection) is particularly strong evidence. Even a self-reflective log entry about planning and delivering a teaching session contributes meaningfully to your portfolio. Discuss with your Educational Supervisor how best to document this for your ARCP.
Almost every session drifts from the plan at some point — that's normal and often healthy. The plan is there to give you a framework, not a script. When things go off-plan, use your professional judgement: is what's happening educationally valuable? If yes, run with it. If no, gently steer back. Afterwards, reflect on what happened and why — this is where the real learning for you as an educator happens.
Several things come up repeatedly. The emphasis on learner-centred rather than teacher-centred approaches can feel uncomfortable if you trained in a system where the teacher's authority was central. The expectation that trainees will challenge, question, and contribute is sometimes misread as disrespect. The concept of constructive alignment — designing backwards from outcomes — is not universal. If you're an IMG, be aware that your instinct may be to teach by telling. UK GP training strongly favours teaching by facilitating. Both have value, but the balance here leans firmly towards facilitation.
✦ Final Take-Home Points
- Write your ILOs first — everything else is built around them.
- Constructive Alignment is the golden rule: ILOs, teaching activities, and assessment must all point at the same target.
- Two strong, achievable ILOs always beat eight vague ones.
- Mix your teaching methods — no single method reaches all learners equally.
- Stickability is the real goal. Ask yourself: will this session be remembered next week?
- Build in buffer time — something always takes longer than expected.
- Sort the room, IT, and equipment the day before — not on the morning of the session.
- Your plan is a map, not a script. Stay flexible within it.
- Reflect immediately after the session while it's fresh. Write it down. It's how great teachers are made.
- Document teaching in your FourteenFish ePortfolio — it's curriculum evidence, not just a personal record.
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