WAAVP/Pfizer Award for Excellence in Teaching Veterinary Parasitology: Teaching of veterinary parasitology - quo vadis?

Some thoughts on training and recruitment of academic teachers and future t rends in teaching veterinary parasitology are presented with emphasis on th e European situation. It is underlined that research is an indispensable ba sis for academic teaching. Besides a broad scientific background of the tea cher, motivation and teaching methods are also important. Many academic tea chers do not receive formal training in teaching methods. In order to impro ve future education, training of staff members in teaching methods should b e promoted. Quality control of teaching and research, already established i n many schools, should generally be introduced. Teaching is mostly underest imated in relation to research. Therefore, more weight should be placed on the former both in selecting scientists for the career as academic teachers and in evaluating and ranking departments for their academic activities. In the future veterinary medicine will have to cope with profound changes i n the society and the veterinary profession, and the progressing European u nification will enhance trends for internationalizing teaching curricula. T herefore, veterinary medicine has to reconsider the teaching subjects and m ethods and to lay more emphasis on flexibility, skills of problem-solving a nd self-learning and on training for life-long learning. At present there i s an ongoing discussion on the question how to teach veterinary medicine, i ncluding veterinary parasitology. There are various options, and some of th em are discussed, namely, the disciplinary and the problem-based/organ-focu ssed approaches. It is concluded that for teaching of veterinary parasitolo gy and related disciplines a combined disciplinary and problem-based approa ch offers the best chances for fulfilling the requirements of teaching for the future. In the curriculum of undergraduate teaching of veterinary medic ine at least 70-90 h should be dedicated to veterinary parasitology using a disciplinary and taxonomic approach. Additional hours are required for ins tructions on clinical cases in approaches focussed on animal species and/or organ diseases. As there is a need for discussing teaching issues, post-graduate specializa tion, and continuing education in parasitology and related disciplines on n ational and international levels, it is recommended to WAAVP to include reg ular workshops on teaching in the programmes of the biannual conferences, a nd to establish a permanent committee which should collect information and submit proposals for improvement of teaching veterinary parasitology. (C)20 00 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.