Postgraduate Course for Clinical Medicine / 医学教育

1) Clinical residency system (5 years) to study medical knowledge and technologies necessary in each field of specialty was established for young doctors who have finished their 2-year post-graduate clinical internship.<BR>2) Post-graduate course of Tokyo Women's Medical University consist of the following divisions: internal medicine and surgery divisions as clinical medicine, morphological, functional and socio-medical divisions as basic medicine and the advanced life-science divisions.<BR>3) Clinical residents can enter the post-graduate course of the university at the same period of their residency and engage in medical research works.<BR>4) Post-graduate courses of Tokyo Women's Medical University are open to peoples working in industrial companies or any enterprises and promote the joint research works with the university and industrial enterprises.<BR>5) The research works by clinical residents in the post-graduate school will encourage the research mind of young doctors and promote the progress of medical researches.

How Do Students Evaluate Tutorial Education? II. Examination with Personal Interviews and Group Discussions / 医学教育

Personal interviews and group discussions were conducted with all 2nd-year students to examine how they feel about tutorial education used as the core of the basic-medicine course and how they recognize the importance of developing their abilities, which was the aim of this course. Many students showed slight anxiety about the results of their learning with tutorials, felt inadequate in their self-learning ability, and hoped the guidance by instructors would be improved. These findings suggest that students' anxiety will decreased and their willingness to learn will increase if their developed abilities are evaluated appropriately and if they receive adequate feedback. These findings also suggest that a retraining program for experienced instructors is needed to improve their guidance skills and to reinforce the importance of their role.

How Do Students Evaluate Tutorial Education? I. Introduction of Tutorial Education in a Basic-Medicine Course / 医学教育

Tokyo Women's Medical University introduced tutorial education in 1990 for 1st-through 4th-year students. To examine the effectiveness of this system in a basic-medicine course, questionnaires were given to all 2nd-year students. Many students felt that they had become accustomed to performing self-learning tasks through collecting information themselves and discussing their findings in a group; in particular, they found that tutorial education markedly improved their communication skills. A few students thought that this method helped them develop the ability of logical/critical thinking and analytic skills from multiple viewpoints. These findings suggest that an assessment system should be established by which students themselves could recognize the extent to which they have developed their abilities, which was the aim of tutorial education.

Evaluation of Faculty and Students in Medical Education on the Basis of Small Problem-Based Learning Groups: A Questionnaire Survey of Medical Education Abroad. The Current Situation of the Medical Education Abroad from the Results of the Questionnaire Su / 医学教育

To introduce problem-based learning (PBL) in small groups to medical education in Japan, a questionnaire was sent to 10 foreign medical schools where PBL has been used. Five schools in the United States and one each in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia responded to all 15 questions concerning their educational system, faculty training, faculty evaluation, and student evaluation. The faculty is trained in 7 medical schools, retrained in 4, and self-trained in 5. The faculty is objectively evaluated by students and a faculty committee in seven schools and the results are returned to the faculty. The students are evaluated by self-evaluation, written tests, and oral examination in al schools, and also by peer-evaluation in one school. The evaluation of students directly affects their promotion in all schools but one. Such effective evaluation and feedback systems, including evaluations of the students' learning skills and their attitude toward learning, play important roles in effective PBL.