Learning outcomes

“Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else.” So said Mr Gradgrind, the headmaster in Charles Dickens's Hard Times. And facts are what medical education was once all about. If you went to medical school before 1990 then you learnt facts and were tested on these facts.

But knowledge of facts on their own is not enough to make a good doctor. Indeed, educational research has shown that the methods used to teach may have …