Department of medical education; A personal history

This is a brief overview of the history of formal introduction of the art and science of education into the sphere of medical education in Shiraz. Before this introduction medical education was, and in the majority of other institutions world-wide still is, a simple transfer of knowledge from teacher to student. The students accepted their passive role because this was how they had been taught all their life. The teachers perpetuated this process because this was how they were taught themselves. After all, what was good enough for them was good enough for the students. All one needed to be a good teacher was to be an expert in ones field. What the Department of Medical Education attempted to do locally and the Regional Teacher Training Center internationally, was to promulgate problem-based, learner directed teaching using the principles of adult learning and using evaluation methods that were valid and reliable. This article describes the process used for this transformation and some of the results obtained.