Psychiatry instruction was divided into three components: basic information taught in a self-instructional format; experiential content (e.g., counseling and interviewing skills) taught with instructor feedback; and training in psychiatric data collection and diagnosis integrated in the self-instructional unit. Course use at Utah and student…

A study using 60 first-year medical students in the Santo Amaro Faculty of Medicine, San Paulo, Brazil, found that self-instructional methods such as guided self-instruction or discussion groups are not superior to conventional classes. Self-instruction does have the advantages of low cost and easy applicability. (LBH)

For teaching medical students how to use problem-oriented medical records the authors devised teaching case material and two instructional formats (self-instructional and workshop) which were used for second-year medical students, then conducted a study which showed that all student groups attained an acceptable performance level regardless of…

Discussions concluded that now is the time to develop criteria for measuring professional quality of practicing physicians and to improve learning processes in medical schools. (Editor/IR)

The best way to determine the scope of the clinical education of medical students is to define competencies expected of newly graduated physicians (exit objectives). These objectives ensure that the scope of education includes the content, teaching/learning methods, and evaluation techniques that will result in a competent, professional product.…