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SECTIONS: TEACHING: Current Activities

Translations for ICSU grant | Involvement of clinical pharmacology | Work on post-graduate teaching issues | Future meetings or contributions to meetings | Publication channels | Development of pharmacology core curricula | Sharing of teaching materials

Translations for ICSU grant
In 2001 the Section applied to ICSU for a grant to make available computer-based learning materials in several languages. While the grant application was successful the amount awarded (USD5000) was significantly below what was requested (USD146000). To meet the obligations of the award the previous executive agreed that a single program (a simulated sciatic nerve gastrocnemeous muscle) would be provided with the brief users guide translated into several languages. To date translations into:
Spanish, Finnish, Indonesian, French, have been agreed and as soon as these become available will be provided through the web-site. Offers to translate the users guide into other languages will be appreciated. Note that the program itself will remain in english but that being a simulation it has very little textual content which is not recognisable internationally (e.g. drug names such as acetylcholine).
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Involvement of clinical pharmacology
Clinical pharmacology issues on which some exchange would be useful include:
The content of pharmacology in integrated courses and how it is examined
Drug lists and core curricula
Clinical pharmacology in new medical schools in the UK
How the more general aspects of pharmacology (e.g. drug interactions, adverse effects, selectivity, pharmacoeconomics) are taught in integrated courses.
Annual appraisal of medical students and the appraisal process.
Incidence of psychiatric illness among medical students.
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Work on post-graduate teaching issues
Much of the work of the section has concentrated on undergraduate and medical courses but post-graduate students (i.e. those studying for higher degrees) form an important constituency who represent the young lifeblood of our discipline. The Secretary of the Section (Joan Lakoski) has a special interest in developing teaching of post graduates and those interested in this area should contact her directly.
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Future meetings or contributions to meetings
The teaching Section has no formal budget grant from IUPHAR but is able to make application for funds for particular purposes. Large amounts of money are not likely to be available. However the Section is keen to support local initiatives for meetings involving several countries to develop teaching methods in pharmacology, to share experiences and to build networks. Potential organisers of such meetings should contact the Chairman at an early stage to discuss how the section might assist.
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Publication channels
Individuals who have material which would make a full refereed paper are encouraged to submit to Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archives of Pharmacology following the details and format required by the journal (www.springer.de). Submitted work will of course be subjected to the normal peer review process.

The Section is keen to publish on the web site useful ideas, exercises or tasks which might improve teaching of pharmacology. These should be submitted to the Chairman or Secretary and should occupy UP TO 1 side of A4 (12 point type, 2cm margins all round, single spaced). Submissions should follow the format which follows: TITLE; ORIGINATOR (Name, address, tel, fax, email); SUMMARY (in < 5 lines); STUDENTS (to what sort/year of student); OBJECTIVES (<4 lines); DETAILS (up to remainder of A4 page).
Those already available can be found under teaching resources.
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Development of pharmacology core curricula
The changing basis of pharmacology courses with a move to integrated and problem-based courses has led to major changes in pharmacology curricula. Curricula from several institutions are available for download (see below) and a number of suggested core curricula or drug lists are also available.

Details of pharmacology curricula used for pharmacy, medicine and science pharmacology teaching in different institutions in different countries WILL BE ADDED to the list as they are made available. Analysis of the curricula shown below and others from other sites suggest that pharmacology curricula for medical students fall into three categories:

    1. The traditional curriculum, often largely lecture based, delivered and assessed as a separate component of the medical course, usually taught by pharmacologists.

    2. The integrated curriculum where the subject of pharmacology is largely diffused throughout the course. The pharmacological aspects of each system or disease are dealt with along side the physiology, pathology, biochemistry etc. May be taught by teachers with primarily non-pharmacological expertise.

    3. The problem based learning course often built around a series of case studies and usually integrated as in (2) above.

Each of these has strengths and weaknesses and there is considerable debate about the merit of the students as doctors after the different types of course.

The traditional course provides easily and economically delivered teaching and it is easy to know (and usually control) what pharmacological material is in the course. The assessment is usually controlled by pharmacologists and is separated from the rest of the medical course. The course is usually accompanied by seminars, practicals or other teaching events and only a  minority of courses make use of animal practicals. There is clear progression of pharmacological information and it is easy to encompass areas such as absorption, distribution, biotransformation and excretion of drugs, drug development and receptor mechanisms for example.

The integrated curriculum attempts to bring together the material in all disciplines relevant to a particular system or disease. It is often difficult to know exactly what pharmacology is being taught and this teaching is often done by non-pharmacologists. The course is examined in an integrated manner and there is no specific examination in pharmacological aspects of what is taught. The course is usually accompanied by seminars, practicals or other teaching events and only a very small minority of courses make use of animal practicals. There is often little clear or logical progression of pharmacological information and it is very difficult to encompass areas such as absorption, distribution, biotransformation and excretion of drugs, drug development and receptor mechanisms for example.

The problem-based learning course attempts to direct students to extract from learning resources the information they require by presenting students with a problem and often a set of questions the discovery of the answers to which will enable the students to learn the required information. Lectures may have been eliminated entirely. These courses are often staff intensive and are usually also integrated so that assessment of specific pharmacological knowledge is difficult. Problems can be set to cover all aspects of pharmacology though finding suitable material may be difficult.

There is a mixture of these different approaches to pharmacology across Europe and there is no obvious association between the type of course offered and any country. In most countries some institutions run one type of course and some another. A significant number of institutions are either planning to change, are in the process of change or have just changed the type of course they deliver. The movement is always away from the traditional towards the integrated or problem based learning course. This change of course design is usually reported as being very time-consuming and fraught with many difficulties. Within problem based courses there is a significant resource element involved with the development of new teaching materials. There is considerable potential for sharing of such resources to improve efficiency but many institutions have invested significant resources in the development of these material and are unwilling to provide them at no cost to "competitor" institutions.
 

Detailed core curricula for honours BSc Pharmacology, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy and Veterinary Science can be found at http://www.bps.ac.uk (note: go to Educational Resources and core curricula)

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Sharing of teaching materials
The Section is keen to promote the sharing of teaching materials which are developed in individual institutions. To this end a variety of materials have been provided by individuals and are available to be used freely by pharmacologists for non-commercial purposes. It would be expected that the source of the material would be acknowledged but copying, using and changing the material is not restricted except that use must be for a non-commercial purpose.

Individuals willing to share, under the conditions outlined above, the materials they have developed are invited to send them to the Chairman or Secretary for consideration for inclusion on the teaching section web site.

We are all spending too much time developing similar material - let's all save time by more collaboration which will benefit us all.
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