Self-directed learning in a psychopathology course

Self-directed learning has been identified as an essential element of professional development. In this approach, students receive in advance a complete set of objectives and didactic knowledge (cognitive) learning materials, are provided opportunities to develop skills with actual or simulated clinical experiences, and adapt a broad and flexible array of educational media to their individual learning styles. In the development of a self-directed psychopathology course for second-year medical students, the authors incorporated four modifications to the traditional lecture and small group (faculty-directed) approach: 1) independent (self-directed) learning with no prescribed study times or sequence to the material, 2) use of student and faculty-directed interviews of patients, 3) greater freedom for selecting teaching methods in small groups, and 4) elimination of formal lectures. The authors describe the educational results with such an approach.