Different Teaching Strategies

[dm24980]

What are the different teaching styles that make one school different from another?

There's problem-based learning, lectures, anything else? How do you know which schools incorporate the greatest amounts of problem-based learning? Their literature simply says their curriculums are problem-based.

My main concern when looking for a med school is to decide which school structures classes and activities so that I learn more than I would at other schools.

In my experience, lectures are usually close to useless because they are so passive, most of what's mentioned can usually be found in the book in a clearer context, and reading isn't useful unless you have time to read the material multiple times and organize it on paper. As I mention these things, are there any schools that any of you would recommend that I apply to?

Please help.

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[Disinence2]

Schools can organize their curriculum anyway they want, but when it comes down to it, were all gonna learn the same thing. And most of this learning is going to come from reading books.

I found PBL to be an egregious waste of time. Others in my class loved it. Luckily my school was 1 year of traditional lectures, then 1 year of system based PBL. The advantage to this is that if you absolutely hate one learning style then you only have to deal with it for a year.

Try to figure out what really works best for you. I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss "reading" as an inefficient method, as this will be your primary source for learning new things for the rest of your career.

 

[Jolteon]

What are the different teaching styles that make one school different from another?

There's problem-based learning, lectures, anything else? How do you know which schools incorporate the greatest amounts of problem-based learning? Their literature simply says their curriculums are problem-based.

My main concern when looking for a med school is to decide which school structures classes and activities so that I learn more than I would at other schools.

In my experience, lectures are usually close to useless because they are so passive, most of what's mentioned can usually be found in the book in a clearer context, and reading isn't useful unless you have time to read the material multiple times and organize it on paper. As I mention these things, are there any schools that any of you would recommend that I apply to?

Please help.

Lectures can be very useful, but they can also be useless like you said. I think it depends on the teacher.

I've found that if a teacher teaches from a powerpoint instead of actually teaching and doing problems, the class is going to be useless, while a teacher that really talks to you from his knowledge and works/writes things on a whiteboard will make you feel like you've learned an incredible amount.

 

[vc7777]

One method is not better than another, per se. As someone mentioned, everyone learns the same material in the end.

It all depends on you, really. If you have the chance to participate in a PBL-like class as an undergrad you should. You may decide that it is the cat's pajamas or you may hate it.

For me personally, lectures are a supreme waste of my time. The curriculum at Case Western includes PBL (and at Cleveland Clinic is 100%). Small focused group settings is actually more akin to what I did in "the real world" for a dozen years. But caveat emptor - that's just me.

As for other styles, Ohio State (OSU) has a completely independent study option after the first ~10 weeks or so. If this is how you learn best, then you should look into their program as well.