How medical school faculty regard educational research and make pedagogical decisions

Abstract

The authors studied a group of professors at a large school of medicine in the western United States to determine the extent to which they were aware of past or current educational research, their feelings about the enterprise of educational research, and how they made pedagogical decisions. The study emphasizes a qualitative analysis of the data by using in-depth, confidential interviews; many typical responses are quoted. The authors found little or no knowledge of past or current educational research even among those professors who thought such research to be valuable. The possible reasons for this finding are discussed.