The Medical School Learning Environment

Abstract

In mosn mnedical schools intellectual, interpersonal, and ethical development of students are ti/e core constituents of statements of educational goals and objectives. Paradoxica/lk; it inay be that the dominant features of the educational environments of these schools serve to inhibit student development in these areas. T/iis report describes one of a series of inivestigations, carried out at the Faculty of Medicinie of a large Canadian university, testing the hypothesis of a mismatch between educational goals and the educational environiment. In this study the perceptions of course and topic supervisors, who are responsible for t/ie planning, coordination, presentation, and evaluation of the discrete courses thai make tip the undergraduate medical curriculum, are described and analyzed with reference to A rgyris and Schon 's Model 1 and Model 2 definitions of institutional environmnents.