16. Teaching and training The GMC encourages you to help the public to be aware of and understand health issues and to contribute to the education and training of other doctors, medical students and colleagues. If you have special responsibilities for teaching you must develop the skills, attitudes and practices of a competent teacher. You must also make sure that students and junior colleagues are properly supervised. You must be honest and objective when assessing the performance of those you have supervised or trained. Patients may be put at risk if you confirm the competence of someone who has not reached or maintained a satisfactory standard of practice. GMC Good Medical Practice, paragraphs 8–10  The excellent GP teacher - has a personal commitment to teaching and learning, and shows a willingness to develop further through education, audit, and peer review - understands the principles and theory of education, and uses teaching methods appropriate to the educational objectives - ensures that patients are not put at risk when seeing students or doctors in training - uses formative assessment and constructs educational plans - assists in making honest summative assessment of learners The unacceptable GP teacher - puts patients at risk by allowing the learner to practise beyond the limits of his or her competence - does not take teaching responsibilities seriously - offers no personal and educational support to the learner, and does not have appropriate teaching skills - uses inappropriate teaching methods and does not use formative assessment to identify learning needs - makes biased or prejudiced judgements when assessing learners - fails to take appropriate action when the performance of a learner is inadequate