Medical education in Saudi Arabia: An exciting journey

Abstract

Medical education is on today’s agenda. What students learn, how they learn, where they learn and how the learning is best organised and assessed are questions being addressed, not only by medical education enthusiasts or educational researchers but more generally by healthcare professionals, the public and politicians. The increased interest and participation in local, national and international meetings on medical education, such as the Conference organised by the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE), which now attracts 3000 participants, is evidence of this growing interest in the field. An expanding number of texts on the subject such as ‘A Practical Guide for Medical Teachers’ which is now in its fourth edition are now available. The number of papers submitted for publication on the subject is also expanding. Each week in the Medical Teacher office, almost 25 new manuscripts are received for consideration. In Saudi Arabia, there has been a corresponding increase in interest in medical education and a rapid expansion in the number of medical schools, with the number doubling over the past five years to 31 (Bin Abdulrahman 2011). The Saudi Deans Committee and the Saudi Society for Medical Education have been active in the field of medical education, and among their contributions has been the development and publication of a learning outcome framework – ‘Saudi Meds’ (Zaini et al. 2011). Medical education departments are a feature of many medical schools in the Kingdom and these have been a focus for developments in the field. In this supplement to Medical Teacher, some of the interesting on-going work in medical education is summarised. The 13 papers published were selected from almost 40 papers submitted, as a result of a review process involving regional and international referees, with the aim of providing an overview of some of the work in medical education currently underway in the Kingdom. In medical education, there has been a move from a teacher-centred to a student-centred model (Harden et al. 1984) with recognition that the importance of the student is paramount. It is therefore significant that seven of the papers included in this supplement address issues specifically relating to the student. The move to ‘self-directed learning’ has been more appropriately referred to as ‘directed self-learning’ (Harden & Laidlaw 2012), with the teacher’s role as one of the facilitator of the learning through the provision of guidance for students as to what they should learn and the options available to support this. Al-hazimi (2012; this supplement), based on his experience with a cardiovascular module at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, describes how a study guide can be used to support student learning. Much has been written about students’ engagement with PBL. Alghasham (2012; this supplement) from Al-Qassim College of Medicine offers an interesting perspective. He reports how students with different learning styles respond in different ways to PBL. This is an interesting area for further exploration in the pursuit of creating learning opportunities more personalised and tailored to the needs of the individual student. Another paper by Alamro and Schofield (2012; this supplement) from the same Medical School describes how traditional PBL can be supported with online discussion forums. The learning environment to which the student is exposed