Medical schools across the country are offering courses that take students out of large lectures and turn them from doodlers into detectives--following a model designed by Harvard Medical School (HMS) over a decade ago.

HMS's New Pathway program is perhaps the most comprehensive example of "problem-based learning"--a philosophy of teaching that has students work in small groups to solve specific clinical "cases."

HMS assembled this program in the mid-Eighties and has used it for about 60 percent of its instruction since.

Now, more and more medical schools are using similar programs--encouraged by what HMS officials say is a high rate of satisfaction among students.

According to HMS Dean for Medical Education Daniel D. Federman '49, HMS developed the new curriculum in the early Eighties by combining elements of problem-based learning programs at other schools.

"We did not invent a single element, but we did put together the whole package," Federman says.

The result was named the New Pathway, tested in 1985 and 1986 and was set in place permanently in 1987.

Learning by Doing

Students who learn medicine from the New Pathway take an active role in their own education, Federman says.