A rationale is presented for medical schools to hire deans who are members of a minority group, with special capabilities and responsibilities for representing the interests of minority students in medical school and for making just opportunities available so that more minority students might enter medical school. (JT)

Reports results of a national longitudinal study of the educational choices of college seniors, followed up a year later. Emphasis is on results for medical students: their characteristics as compared to other college seniors and their perceptions of the first year. They reported having worked hard and being quite satisfied with their schools.…

A study investigated the known phenomenon of "intermediate effect" in which medical students with an intermediate amount of knowledge and experience demonstrate higher amounts of recall of the text of a medical case than either experienced clinicians or novices. In this study the amount of activation of prior knowledge was controlled by…

This report of a conference dedicated to the growth of professionalism within the field of learning assistance begins with a brief introduction reviewing the origins and objectives of the sponsoring association, followed by 10 representative papers. The papers have the following titles and authors: "The Classroom Research Project: Results at…

Medical students' perceptions of the college environment and interactions with peers and faculty were studied at the University of North Carolina, Duke University, Wake Forest University, and East Carolina University. A total of 76 black medical students (65% of the 117 black students in North Carolina's four medical schools) responded to a…

This document reports on a study of influences on the choice of family practice as a medical speciality in a setting in which primary care is not stressed. The study surveyed 392 alumni of the University of Michigan Medical School who graduated between 1950 and 1984 and were members of the American Academy of Family Physicians and/or were…

A reference manual on teaching methods for medical school residents and clinician-teachers is presented. Five principles of learning for adult learners that apply to medical students, residents, and medical practitioners are identified. Attention is directed to teaching methods for lectures, grand rounds, seminars and journal clubs, teaching…

Findings of a 1973 study by the University of Arizona College of Medicine Admissions Review Committee (established by the Arizona Legislature) are summarized in an excerpt from a 1972 report and in a letter and memo. The committee reviewed the admission policies and practices of the College of Medicine for 2 years by a random study of 50 percent…

To minimize the effects of systematic differences in raters' standards of clinical competence, a handicapping system was applied to the ratings made by fourteen preceptors of 128 junior year medical students in a 6-week psychiatry clerkship at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. The handicap of a preceptor was the difference between…

The teaching of interviewing skills is increasingly incorporated into clinical medicine courses in American medical schools, yet the attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of these efforts have been woefully inadequate. Typical outcome measures have included paper and pencil tests of knowledge, preceptor evaluations of clinical performance, and…

This document reviews the research on the medical school admissions process that has been completed during the past twenty years. The process is put into perspective by a historical overview chapter that traces trends in medical school admissions and highlights, where possible, relationships between the admissions process and institutional and…

This study was undertaken to determine the factor analytic structure of patient management problems (PMPs) and to determine whether such factors are stable for different groups taking the same examination and for the same group over time. PMPs attempt to simulate, in written form, the process that a physician goes through in managing a patient.…

The findings of studies on the status of medical education in the South and the deliberations of a regional conference "Alternatives in Medical Education in the South" held in Atlanta, December 15-16, 1980 are summarized in this publication. The following issues are addressed: (1) the national picture of the future supply of physicians;…

A substantial and indispensable portion of the training of health professionals must be conducted in clinical settings and is performance oriented rather than cognitively oriented. Evaluation methods usually require reliance upon check lists and rating scales and capture a large volume of information in order to accurately reflect the complexity…

A rating scale was developed for the evaluation of behaviors and skills required of medical students. From 400 items based on various role-defining studies, 92 were selected. The project staff randomly assigned 46 items to each of two alternate forms. Seven medical schools were identified as sites for pilot testing. Medical students who agreed to…