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Section 1: Employment History

Section 2: Documents & Certificates

Section 3: Academic Achievements

Section 4: Career Development

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When we say ‘teaching’ we are referring to times when you have been the teacher, not the student (we refer to that as learning). It can relate to the teaching you have given, courses you have attended that improve your teaching skills, or feedback you have received about your teaching ability.

Teaching shows that you are sharing what you have learned with those less experienced than you, and the people you work with.

In your portfolio, you should record your teaching experience in reverse chronological order (most recent first) according to medical calendar year (Aug - July, or appraisal calendar year if this is different).

Teaching doesn’t always mean a formal classroom session for a large group. It can be 1:1, in-person or online, ward-based or classroom-based, formal or spontaneous. If you have imparted knowledge or skills to someone else, then you could probably call it teaching.

No, you don’t ‘need’ to give teaching if it is not something you are interested in. Trainees may need to attend the ‘teach the teacher, train the trainer’ course and/or present at a Grand Round as part of their training requirements, however, if you are a non-trainee and your appraiser hasn’t specifically asked for it then you may not need to give any teaching at all.

If you plan to apply for specialty training in the future, some specialties give you extra application points if you have done teaching, attended teaching courses (like teach the teacher/train the trainer), or contributed to a local or national teaching programme. Your F3 year could be the perfect time to focus on teaching if you haven’t had much time to focus on teaching as an F2.

If you do give any teaching, then it is useful to retain evidence of it. This can be in the form of:

Once you have gathered the above evidence, you should think about how you are going to store it in your portfolio.

If you repeat the same teaching session over and over, then keep all documents relating to that topic together. If you do random teaching sessions here and there, on a number of different topics, then you should group them in your portfolio in reverse chronological order (most recent first).

It is also worth thinking about how you will use this evidence in the future. If you need to do an appraisal or revalidation and want to include your teaching evidence, then using the appraisal ‘log-evidence-reflect’ model as you collect evidence can save you work and stress in the long term.

This model is used in appraisal to discuss evidence that you supply to your appraiser (not just about teaching, but anything). It states that you should:

Log → Compile a list of teaching you have provided by date, or if it is a recurring topic then by theme.

Evidence → Keep copies of teaching materials that you have created, and feedback that you have received from your students.

Reflect → Do a written reflection on how teaching sessions went, questions posed to you, and student feedback. Comment on whether you adapted your teaching resources or teaching style based on the feedback you were given, or reflect on whether previous changes you made had a positive or negative effect.

A brief reflection on your teaching can help you improve your skills and recurring teaching over the course of your career. As you narrow the scope of your medical career by specialising or refining your interests, you will undoubtedly find that you are teaching the same topics over and over.

Being able to pass on knowledge effectively so that your message is clear and memorable is a difficult skill to master. Self-reflection can help you notice when your teaching works well, and when it doesn’t.

When doing a reflection, write down:

There is no specific section on the MAG to upload teaching. You can include it in the additional information section (section 14) or in the review of your GMC Good Medical Practice domains (section 16).

‘Supervision’ here refers to the regular 1:1 meetings that you have had with a supervisor or manager. They are common for substantive non-training roles (and in particular psychiatry) and provide a combination of learning, review of progress, and emotional support. They would be similar to the 1:1 meetings you have with your educational supervisor or clinical supervisor during training, though in hospital specialties they are generally less frequent (i.e. monthly or quarterly rather than weekly).

Supervision should be regularly provided in substantive roles (i.e. training, clinical fellowships, and trust grade positions) as part of your contract of employment.

It involves a 1:1 meeting with a supervisor on a regular basis (the frequency of this depends on the contract) to:

You or your supervisor should be creating written records of these meetings, including:

You both should retain a copy of this record after the meeting.

There is no specific section on the MAG to upload supervision. You can include it as evidence of CPD (section 7) or in the additional information section (section 14), in the review of your GMC Good Medical Practice domains (section 16), or not at all if you feel it is unnecessary. It may be useful to include if you are not struggling to meet your PDP goals in a substantive post, to show that you have discussed this with your supervisor in advance of your appraisal.

In your portfolio, you should keep all of your supervision grouped by role or position.