What do teachers need? Development of teacher professionalization activities for interprofessional and interdisciplinary education

Introduction – The need for interprofessional education (IPE) and interdisciplinary education (IDE) to train future professionals, able to address the increasingly complex challenges in society is widely supported. Interprofessional- and interdisciplinary education require specific skills from teachers, and proper training of teachers is, therefore, essential for sufficient achievement of the learning goals of interprofessional- and interdisciplinary education. However, systematic insight in teachers' skills based on empirical findings from teachers themselves, as well as how these needs translate into desired content for teacher professionalization activities is currently lacking. Methods – We conducted semistructured interviews with 21 teachers with experience in IPE and IDE and qualitatively analyzed the interviews to assess the needs for teacher professionalization activities in IPE and IDE. Results – We identified four themes related to the past needs (in their experience with IPE and IDE) and desired content of professionalization activities: 1) Teachers' knowledge, 2) Teachers' attitude, 3) Didactics and 4) Educational development. Furthermore, we found preferences in the desired format of professionalization activities. Teachers generally agreed that training must include real-time interactive elements with peers, combined with self-study elements. Discussion – Based on these results, we provide an example of a IPE/IDE instructor profile that outlines the competencies IDE/IPE teachers should possess. This profile may provide (future) IPE/IDE teachers with a clear understanding of what is expected from them, and the profile may help program management to recognize that IPE/IDE requires a different set of competencies. The latter supports informed decisions about which teachers are best suited to teach in IDE/IPE contexts and may support the design of teacher professionalization activities in these programs. The current study, therefore, offers a solid foundation for developing or improving professional development activities for teachers in IPE/IDE.