Task-based learning (TBL) is an educationally sound, effective, and efficient strategy for delivering relevant education. In TBL, the tasks of the health care professional provide the context and the focus for learning, but are not the objective of the student's learning. Students gain a basic understanding of the principles of health and disease…

Medical writing is virtually devoid of reference to the use of humor as a teaching aid. Research into the role of humor in medical teaching is made difficult by such matters as the complex nature of the perception of humor, by difficulties in contriving humor in controlled settings, and by difficulties in establishing outcome measures for humor…

In literature on problem-based learning (PBL), it is often difficult to determine whether the educational approach being described is actually PBL. Provides planners and assessors of PBL curricula with a framework for analysis. Educational activities can be categorized as PBL according to three core principles and four criteria concerning their…

Cases are stories that are meant to educate. Teachers can deliver cases by lecture, through Socratic questioning, through discussion leading, and in small group learning. Some cases are fact driven and deductive, whereas others are context driven. Science appears to demand closed-ended cases with correct answers; however, in frontier science,…

Continuing education for physicians and other health professionals is considered a necessity. One of the methods that physicians could select for their continuing education is the use of self-learning materials (SLM) such as audiotapes, videotapes, slides, television, videodiscs, and computers in the home. A survey taken by the World Health…