Excellence in teaching

Jennet Harvey (re)joined the University in 1980 after an absence overseas for family reasons. She is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology, and a specialist pathologist at the Western Australian Centre for Pathology and Medical Research and the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. She won an Excellence in Teaching Award in 1994. These awards represent a joint effort by the Guild and the University to recognise and reward exemplary teaching.

Teaching in pathology, and indeed the medical curriculum in general at UWA, has for many years followed a fairly traditional pattern of education with a high content of didactic lectures supplemented by small group tutorials, based, at least in the latter years, around clinical material and patients. Overall, I believe, the system has worked well, and high quality graduates have emerged to take their place in the community as capable clinicians, teachers, scientists and administrators. For many reasons, traditional medical education is currently under scrutiny, as health care faces new challenges. Soaring health costs, the effective delivery of services to isolated and underprivileged communities, and a whole host of 'new' ethical dilemmas related to the beginnings of life, the end of life, and genetic manipulation, are but a few of the problems which rightly deserve the attention of undergraduates and graduates alike. The escalation of knowledge in molecular medicine and related and unrelated technological advances all vie for inclusion in an already overcrowded curriculum. Obviously it is not possible for all to be included in the prescribed curriculum, and new ways must be found to encourage students to acquire necessary knowledge for themselves, and apply this knowledge to the solution of the clinical problems they will encounter in professional life. However, the scientific basis of medicine is founded on centuries of tradition, and we want to be very sure that whatever changes we introduce build on that tradition rather than supplant it, and that our future graduates will be as competent as they are stimulated and fulfilled.

My own teaching philosophy has always been to stress the importance of understanding disease processes rather than remembering lists of facts. This seems to be best achieved in small group teaching, where clinical problems can be presented which every student has the opportunity of trying to solve, using their gradually accumulating body of factual knowledge, in a setting which is not threatening to him or her, or the 'patient', which in our tutorials is usually a museum specimen. The process takes time, but it is rewarding to watch students develop the ability to solve these hypothetical problems, and begin to communicate in a professional manner about likely causes, manifestations, and the management of a particular disease process. I feel strongly enough about the discipline of pathology to believe that a good understanding of the pathological basis of disease is the best possible foundation for a future physician, but welcome the opportunity the new curriculum presents, to achieve greater interaction between the various disciplines, and provide an integrated picture to our students.

Will we be able to influence the higher education system, the institutions and their management, the curriculum and the teaching in such a way that students will be prepared as educated, culturally and socially aware people to lead the professions, and will be life long learners...? - Ingrid Moses