Effects of curriculum and format changes in a medical pharmacology course, 1983 to 1987

During the past five years, the medical pharmacology course at the University of Arkansas College of Medicine has changed from a poorly attended course in which students depended on "canned notes" (from a note-taking and note-distribution system organized among themselves) and had bad rapport with faculty members to a course in which attendance is high, the canned-notes system has been abandoned, and faculty-student interactions are generally pleasant. These changes in student behavior occurred during a period in which the pharmacology faculty implemented changes that anticipated the recommendations of the Panel on the General Professional Education of the Physician and College Preparation for Medicine of the Association of American Medical Colleges. These changes included encouraging independent learning, reduced lecture time, and increased problem-solving. The students' performance on the Part I examination of the National Board of Medical Examiners did not change during this period of curriculum revision.