Basics in Medical Education

Rating:
Summary: A hurried piece of work
Review: This is generally a disappointing book. While the authors attempt to describe the principles of education in the context of teaching medical students, they appear to have, in the process, extended their ambition to cover the entire spectrum of issues in medical education. The end result is that the content in the book has become too diverse and difficult to manage. This is evident by the large number of ultra-short chapters in the book.

In trying to cover too wide a scope, the conciseness of the writing style does not work to the authors' advantage. It becomes difficult to explain the basic educational concepts when the text is too short. A significant number of grammatical and spelling errors fill the text. They unfortunately distract the readers' attention from focusing on the subject matter.

The first author does not sound like a Chinese. It is perplexing therefore as to why he chooses to use an example in the Chinese language to illustrate his text, and, in the process makes a blatant mistake that is not picked up by his co-author, whom I belief is a Chinese.

While he was describing curriculum reform and how to cope with change, he made the statement that: 'The Chinese character for "change" has dual connotations to it: on the one hand it means "danger", on the other hand it also means "opportunity."

For anyone who is familiar with the Chinese language, this statement is obviously wrong. The Chinese word that has dual connotations of danger and opportunity is not "change" but "crisis". It worries me as to why such a fundamental mistake has gone unnoticed by the editors and found its way to print.

Many educational principles are described in the book, but they lack adequate illustrative examples. Going by the nature of the examples included, one of the authors is likely to be a paediatrician. While the book does give a broad overview of what medical education is all about, it may not necessarily have explained the "basics" adequately, simply because too much scope is being covered. This is not a book that the reader is likely to be keen to keep on his shelf for reference. The content is far too skimpy and superficial.