Thirty lectures.

Abstract

This statement was made at the end of a discussion by the Royal Commission on the teaching of clinical subjects in undergraduate rnedicine. It was also suggested by the commission that the use of many lectures should be discouraged in view of the depressing effect they may have on the student’s curiosity, initiative, and the ability to learn for himself; but that lecturing may sometimes show value in introducing new subjects or givinginsight into research activities. The major part of the statement quoted above applies to the type of transaction that most people would accept as being the ideal for a really good lecture; but the ability to teach in this way is by no means universal amongst medical teachers. It is probably true to say that there is little genera1 understanding of the assessment of lecturing, but that it would be valuable to have some means of differentiating the ‘expert’ communicators from the poor ones. The ‘measurement’ of lecturing ability is difficult because multiple, complex, and often subjective value judgments are involved that are almost impossible to quantitate. In most instances teachers may be grossly classified ‘good’ or ‘bad’ only, without any detailed recognition of specific variations of performance. It is important that some progress should be