Survey of methods of teaching and learning in undergraduate pharmacology within UK higher education

Many of the pharmacology teachers surveyed in a questionnaire on pharmacology teaching and learning are aware of nontraditional teaching and learning methods and believe they are both appropriate to the discipline and effective in producing learning gain in the students. The reasons that nontraditional teaching methods are not used extensively include a shortage of staff time together with a perception that nontraditional teaching methods are staff-time intensive, a lack of effective motivation and reward of staff by their institutions for implementing nontraditional teaching methods and a shortage of the appropriate facilities and resources required. The questionnaire and its results are discussed in this article.