Our Signature Program

Teaching of Tomorrow (TOT) is a nationally recognized and highly acclaimed Faculty Development Program. For over 30 years, UMass Chan faculty from the departments of Family Medicine and Community Health, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics have trained over 1,800 clinical faculty and preceptors from across the Northeast and beyond.  TOT focuses on building and refining foundational skills for effective clinical teaching in both the inpatient and ambulatory settings.  Preceptors from any specialty and discipline will enhance their clinical teaching skills through discourse and practice.  TOT also provides valuable opportunities to network with other clinician educators. Our award-winning faculty utilize the principles of adult learning, drawing on participants’ experience and building knowledge through dialogue.  The conference provides frequent opportunities to practice and assess new skills in a safe and fun environment.

In 2022, TOT began collaborating with the HRSA funded, New England Nursing Clinical Faculty and Preceptor Academy to expand our interprofessional focus and include nurse clinical faculty, instructors, and preceptors.  The objective of this four-year grant is to increase the nursing workforce by recruiting, training, and preparing skilled and qualified clinical nursing faculty and preceptors.  For more information on this grant, contact NENurseAcademy@umassmed.edu

Two levels are offered:

• Track 1 - Foundation of Clinical Teaching and Educational Planning
• Track 2 - Building Your Career as a Clinician Educator (Advanced Program for Graduates of Track 1); please note Track 2 will not be offered for 2025-2026 cohort

Program Goals: 

• Ignite and share a passion for teaching

• Develop practical teaching skills for effective and efficient teaching in the clinical setting

• Provide practice opportunities to apply and assess new teaching skills

Target Audience:

• Clinical educators – MDs, DOs, NPs, PAs, RNs, Behavioral Health, Pharmacists
• Primary Care and Specialty providers
• Teachers of students, residents, and advanced learners
• Teachers in both In-patient and Ambulatory settings

Format and Description:

• A total of 4 days of training:  two, 2-day conferences, beginning Friday morning and ending Saturday afternoon.  All 4 days are required for CME credit.
• The learning sessions alternate between brief, large group didactics and small groups, which include application of new skills and case and problem-based learning.

Read what our students have to say:

"Thank you and all the faculty for a wonderful course. For me it serves both to instruct and to allow me to interact with wonderful, caring, smart faculty who are not only teaching but modeling, consciously, professionalism... I am especially grateful for the observed small group sessions with expertly facilitated discussion of role played clinical scenarios, taught and reinforced viscerally the skills fundamental to student-focused teaching, guidance, feedback. The comments from those sessions and from the last large group meeting, are still vivd. So, Thank You, very much."

"Loved the exercise.  Helped illustrate the point and keep learners engaged."

"Small group work is fantastic - really allows time for processing and applying concept."

"Thank you for putting together such a great program and weekend.  I felt like I learned so much from my fellow TOT participants - great sense of community which energized me."