EFFETS DES MODIFICATIONS DU PROGRAMME SUR L'ACQUISITION DES CONNAISSANCES EN SCIENCES FONDAMENTALES ET SUR LES ATTITUDES A L'EGARD DE CES MATIERES

There have been many innovations in curricular design employed by North American Schools of Medicine during the 1970s. This paper describes the nature of curricular changes in the pre-clinical subjects at McGill's Faculty of Medicine and their impact on Students' attitudes towards and cognitive performance in the basic science subjects of the medical curriculum. The students' performance on the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Part I examination was used as an indicator of student cognitive performance in the basic sciences. Faculty were interviewed and student questionnaires were administered to determine Faculty and student attitudes towards the basic sciences after changes in the curricular design for the same subjects. Subsequent to the revision NBME Part I performance fell but gradually recovered after five years to previous level of performance. Faculty and students' attitudes about teaching changes for the basic sciences were favourable. It is suggested that time to re-equilibrate is an important factor in the development of any curricular evaluation and that other methods besides multiple choice examinations should be used in curricular evaluation.