INSTRUCTIONAL-METHODS

This chapter addresses one of the goals of The Robert Wood Johnson Fou ndation's ''Preparing Physicians for the Future: Program in Medical Ed ucation'' grants: to introduce new methods of instructions along with curricular revisions. Methods of instruction emphasize ''how to teach, '' in contrast to the curricular reform's ''what to teach,'' The autho r explores the various ways in which the eight participating schools a dopted new instructional methods. The author first sets out the condit ions for effective learning, as expressed in earlier research in cogni tive psychology. He then reviews the issues in new instructional metho ds: problem-based learning, small-group learning, self-directed learni ng, and instructional methods in the service of integration, as well a s learning in outpatient settings and computer-based learning. The aut hor concludes, among other things, that schools must respect the varie ty of ways in which students learn, that some faculty will have to bec ome skilled in unfamiliar teaching methods, that new instructional met hods should be based on empirical evidence of effectiveness, and that sometimes method may be less important than the skill and enthusiasm o f the teacher.