Gehlbach S H (Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, Welsh National School of Medicine, Heath Park, Cardiff CF4 4XN, UK), Farrow S C, Fowkes F G R, West R R and Roberts C J. Epidemiology for medical students: a controlled trial of three teaching methods. International Journal of Epidemiology 1985, 14: 178–181. Medical students taking a course in epidemiology for clinical practice were taught by either lectures, small group seminars or self-learning packages. Examination performances were no different for the three groups, but self-perceived mastery of learning objectives, and satisfaction with the course were higher for students who received self-learning packages. Sixty per cent of self instruction students found the teaching method was successful compared with 37% of the seminar students and only 19% who received lectures. A combination of self-instructional package and seminar would seem to hold most promise for a workable and effective course.
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Gehlbach et al. (1985) studied this question.