2003 Volume 34 Issue 4 Pages 261-269
A medical-ethics course was anonymously evaluated by first-year students over 2 years. The course emphasizes problem-based learning through group discussion of clinical cases and lectures on ethical issues. A tutorial system was added to the course in the second year. Students' evaluations indicated that most students had positive attitudes about the course and that both group discussion and lectures were helpful for achieving the general instructional objectives and specific behavioral objectives of the course. A comparison of the 2 years showed that a majority of evaluated items received higher evaluations from second-year students than from first-year students. We attribute the difference to the livelier discussion with the introduction of the tutorial system and the smaller discussion groups. These results indicate that students consider medical-ethics education to be useful.
