TEACHING OF PATHOLOGY IN UNITED-STATES MEDICAL-SCHOOLS, 1996 1997 SURVEY/

A variety of pressures to change curriculum have resulted in revision of pathology teaching in most medical schools in the United States. Re sponses obtained from 71% of schools on a recent survey of pathology t eaching indicate the following: There are wide variations in the exten t of use of various teaching modalities with resulting emergence of di fferent teaching formats which can be categorized as ''traditional,'' ''enhanced traditional,'' predominantly ''problem based'' Or ''case or iented,'' entirely ''problem based,'' or some form of ''hybrid'' of tr aditional and problem based. The traditional lecture and laboratory co ntinue to be the primary modes of teaching in the vast majority (74%) of schools, however, 53% also use other approaches, eg; small group di scussion, case studies, or conferences to enhance instruction. The lec ture remains an important component of instruction in all major models . The form and extent of the laboratory use varies remarkably from min imal to large number of hours of instruction. The laboratory material is incorporated into small group discussion or conferences in many sch ools. The use of small group discussions (presently, by 79% of schools ) has increased since the last survey conducted in 1986. The mean curr icular time (presently 188 hours) has dropped, however, it is not easy to quantify pathology teaching in many schools with increasing integr ation. Instruction is entirely integrated, multidisciplinary in 28% of schools. Computer-aided instruction is used in some form to varying e xtents in 66% of schools, with the majority using it as a supplementar y tool. There are persistent concerns about faculty time, and high stu dent-faculty ratio. Copyright (C) 1998 by W.B. Saunders Company.