Articulating Practices: Methods and Experiences

In this article we describe an experimental mentoring program conducted in a major medical school in the Northeast of the United States. In it, primary care physicians mentored medical students in the course of conducting their daily practices. All involved were trained in a special reflecting practice that led them to focus on, and to discuss, concrete events occurring during the day. We illustrate how, both in pairs and in larger meetings, in discussing events within their practice together that they were 'struck by', student-mentees not only came to a more practical grasp of the medical knowledge of the classroom and textbook, but that all involved in the program came to create between them a resourceful community. At work within this program was a practice that functioned, not only to help the students, but the whole ongoing practice: for within it, besides moments of teaching, where other kinds of shared moments to do with the details of clinical practice, ethical issues, administrative problems, and so on — with all involved helping each other with what we have called the appreciative evaluation and elaboration of their practices.