Development & Validation of the 5X2 Backward Planning Model for Faculty Development

Abstract

Faculty are considered to be the backbone of any institute and their training and development are necessary for progressive growth of an educational organization. This necessity has been the focus of a lot of medical education research, resulting in a number of faculty development models concentrating on the methodology of program planning and implementation. Such models are mostly linear considering faculty development to be a onetime measure. However, there exists a clear distinction between faculty development and faculty training and in its true sense faculty development should emphasize on individual faculty growth over the long term synonymously with direct short-term goals related to faculty work. This idea encouraged us to develop a new model for FD to reinvent the way we approach faculty development and consider FD as a continuous cyclical process, rather than just a linear model. We conducted a qualitative study based on phenomenological observations, leading to the development of the 5x2 backward planning model. The model essentially consists of the following interchangeable stages; Decide stage (focused on decisions related to the context of the program and the kind of faculty attending it) Define stage( concerned with defining the needs of the program and its objectives); Design stage (concentrates on design of the material and the methods of delivery for the identified objectives); Direct stage ( directing both the learning and development of faculty and establishing a community of practice) lastly, the Dissect stage (focusing on scrutinizing the fulfillment of the objectives and the developmental KPIs.)