Chalk talks are a ubiquitous teaching strategy in both pulmonary, critical care,
and sleep medicine and medicine in general; yet, trainees and early career
faculty are rarely taught how to design, prepare, and present a chalk talk.
Skills necessary to deliver a chalk talk are transferable to other settings,
such as the bedside, wards during rounds, and virtual classrooms. As a teaching
strategy, the chalk talk can involve learners at multiple levels, foster
practical knowledge, stimulate self-assessment, encourage the generation of
broad differential diagnoses, and promote an interactive learning environment.
Suited for both formal and informal learning, the chalk talk can be prepared
well in advance or, after some practice, can be presented “on the
fly.” Furthermore, often on the wards or in the intensive care unit, team
members are asked to “teach the rest of the team” at some point
during rounds. There is little guidance in medical education for students and
trainees to prepare for how to do this, and the chalk talk can serve as an
excellent format and teaching strategy to “teach the team” when
tasked to do so. To highlight our perspectives on best practices in using the
chalk talk format effectively, we first briefly review the literature
surrounding this very common yet understudied teaching strategy. We then provide
a primer on how to design, develop, and deliver a chalk talk as a resource for
how we teach residents, fellows, and early career attendings to deliver their
own chalk talks.