[Current and ideal stages of pharmaceutical education]

Education in university is commonly based on active learning by the students themselves. Lectures, exercises, and training are major learning strategies in a university. Self-study is one of the methods of active learning and is considered to be a major part of the classes when calculating the credits. When the six-year pharmaceutical education program was started, degree of attitude education was increased dramatically. New learning strategies considered to be suitable for attitude education, such as small group discussion (SGD), World Café, team-based learning (TBL), and problem-based learning (PBL)-Tutorials, were introduced in the classes, and the students were very much attracted by these methods. Not only the tactics but also the skills and abilities of teachers are greatly influenced by using such strategies to realize efficient education. Therefore, the most important point becomes faculty development. The degree of learning and the satisfaction of the students are not always mutually related. The evaluation of learning strategies has become difficult because of ambiguous criteria. Whereas an integrated educational program of drug therapies stimulates the motivation for learning of the students, a well-designed program may ruin the delight in learning of students.