Teaching of pathology in United States medical schools, 1996/1997 survey

A variety of pressures to change curriculum have resulted in revision of pathology teaching in most medical schools in the United States. Responses obtained from 71% of schools on a recent survey of pathology teaching indicate the following: There are wide variations in the extent of use of various teaching modalities with resulting emergence of different teaching formats which can be categorized as "traditional," "enhanced traditional," predominantly "problem based" or "case oriented," entirely "problem based," or some form of "hybrid" of traditional and problem based. The traditional lecture and laboratory continue to be the primary modes of teaching in the vast majority (74%) of schools, however, 53% also use other approaches, eg, small group discussion, case studies, or conferences to enhance instruction. The lecture remains an important component of instruction in all major models. The form and extent of the laboratory use varies remarkably from minimal to large number of hours of instruction. The laboratory material is incorporated into small group discussion or conferences in many schools. The use of small group discussions (presently, by 79% of schools) has increased since the last survey conducted in 1986. The mean curricular time (presently 188 hours) has dropped, however, it is not easy to quantify pathology teaching in many schools with increasing integration. Instruction is entirely integrated, multidisciplinary in 28% of schools. Computer-aided instruction is used in some form to varying extents in 66% of schools, with the majority using it as a supplementary tool. There are persistent concerns about faculty time, and high student-faculty ratio.