title: Undergraduate psychiatry students' attitudes towards teaching methods at an Irish university.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  At University College Dublin, teaching in psychiatry includes clinical electives, lectures, small-group and problem-based teaching, consistent with international trends.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine final-year psychiatry students' attitudes towards teaching methods.
  
  
  METHODS
  We distributed questionnaires to all final-year medical students in two classes (2008 and 2009), after final psychiatry examination (before results) and all of them participated (n = 111).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Students' interest in psychiatry as a career increased during psychiatry teaching. Students rated objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) as the most useful element of teaching and examination. The most common learning style was "reflector"; the least common was "pragmatist". Two thirds believed teaching could be improved (increased patient contact) and 89 % reported that experience of psychiatry changed attitudes towards mental illness (increased understanding).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Students' preference for OSCEs may reflect the closeness of OSCE as a form of learning to OSCE as a form of assessment: OSCEs both focus on specific clinical skills and help prepare for examinations. Future research could usefully examine the extent to which these findings are university-specific or instructor-dependent. Information on the consistency of various teaching, examination and modularisation methods would also be useful.
authors.affiliation: Department of Adult Psychiatry, UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, University College Dublin, 62/63 Eccles Street, Dublin 7, Ireland.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jabbar
authors.affiliation: Department of Adult Psychiatry, UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, University College Dublin, 62/63 Eccles Street, Dublin 7, Ireland.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Casey
authors.affiliation: Department of Adult Psychiatry, UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, University College Dublin, 62/63 Eccles Street, Dublin 7, Ireland. brendankelly35@gmail.com.
authors.forename: B D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Kelly
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching; D014495:Universities
keywords: Education; Educational; Medical; Models; Problem-based learning; Psychiatry; Schools; Undergraduate