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PROGRAMMED LEARNING AND THE TEACHING OF MEDICINE
Author(s) -
Blizard Peter J.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1971.tb87522.x
Subject(s) - attrition , curriculum , teaching and learning center , medical education , teaching method , programmed instruction , mathematics education , per capita , psychology , pedagogy , medicine , population , environmental health , dentistry
This paper deliberately avoids discussion of the psychological theory out of which programmed learning has developed; the writer considers that other matters are of greater immediate importance. The primary emphasis is placed on the educational advantages and disadvantages of programmed learning. In general it is contended that these forms of learning — they are not techniques — can bring in their train a number of benefits. First, they can sharpen the nature of the objectives of the medical curriculum, and thus result in greater experimentation and curricular reform. Secondly, by providing superior instructional materials to mature, highly motivated learners, they can provide for improvements in the standard of “continuing education” —an increasingly important element in medical education. Thirdly, programmed learning depends intimately on a continuous involvement in teaching‐learning processes by academic staff members — to the extent that some programmes might take up to 3,000 man‐hours to develop; this often leads to improvements in teaching skills. Fourthly, self‐instructional centres could lead to an increase in the number of students taking medicine. Fifthly, student attrition could be reduced, thus bringing about a per‐capita reduction in the costs of medical education to the community. The present paper concentrates, materially, on the first three of these benefits to the teaching of medicine.