An inquiry into staffing, organisation and teaching in South African medical schools

A comparative analysis of student/staff ratios (SSRs) revealed a very marked difference (2:1-5.3:1) between the most and least liberally staffed medical schools in South Africa. A study of workloads determined how the average medical teacher allocates time between teaching, clinical work, research and other activities. How medical teachers teach, their preparation for teaching, factors influencing teaching practices, teaching methods used and their attitudes to the use of educational resources were investigated. Just over 70% of medical teachers are teaching without any formal preparation although opposition to teaching courses appears to be diminishing. That medical education is teacher-orientated is obvious from the fact that resources that transmit information are used more than those that propagate interaction between teacher and student and encourage more complex forms of learning. Only 13% of medical teachers 'often' use educational objectives and the majority (58%) never use them at all. Criterion-referenced evaluation should have a place in medical education, where a core of minimum knowledge is considered essential, but over 80% of medical teachers 'never' use this method in assessing students.