The following abstracts have been accepted for presentation at this meeting in Poster format in the category of General Education.  
 
 

G1	THE CULTURE OF MEDICAL EDUCATION – REPORT ON AN INTERACTIVE TRAVELLING EXHIBITION Elizabeth Krajic Kachur, Ph.D.* and the International Culture Exhibition Committee (Michael J Yedidia, Ph.D.; Ernani V. Aboim Silva, M.D.; Elena Lesser Bruun, Ed.D.; Martin Lischka, M.D.; Athol P. Kent, M.D.; John H Shatzer, Ph.D.; J Hugh Baron, M.D.; Lisa Altshuler, Ph.D.; Michael Aylward, M.D.; Nobutaro Ban, M.D.; Peter Schofield, M.D.; Tanya Pagan Raggio, M.D., M.P.H.; Enoch N Kwizera, M.D.; Alan Hilfer, Ph.D.; Hannah Kedar, M.A.), Medical Education Development, New York, NY 10010  U.S.A. The culture of an organization (its manners, customs and values) can have a major impact on its advancement or stagnation.  Educators need to fully understand their professional and institutional culture in order to optimize its impact.  An interactive exhibition of artifacts (everyday images and objects of medical education) was mounted in order to help viewers reflect on the field and their involvement in it. Medical education conference participants and listserv members were queried about the images and objects that represent their daily work.  An international committee helped translate these ideas into meaningful displays.  The exhibition was inaugurated at the “Ottawa in Africa” conference in South Africa (2000).  Since then it traveled (sometimes with an associated workshop) to a North Eastern Group on Educational Affairs meeting in Hew Hampshire (2000), an Association for Medical Education annual conference in Germany (2001), a “Quality of Learning” conference in Austria (2001) and Kings College in England (2001).  At three other sites the project was presented in the form of a poster and sample objects.  Comments and contributions from viewers helped enrich the exhibit in subsequent iterations.  The ultimate goal is a Web-based resource for medical educators.  Initially the project merely tried to describe the current culture of medical education.  Now it also includes an attempt to explore future developments.  To date the lessons learned include: a) Individuals engaged in medical education do not routinely reflect on their organizational and professional work environment; b) Medical education is a very broad field – familiarity with one area does not ensure familiarity with others; c) Some objects carry a universal meaning while others seem to have only regional significance.
G2	TEMPORAL DYNAMICS OF SOCIETAL SYSTEMS AND REFORMS IN MEDICAL EDUCATION: FLEXNER, PROBLEM-BASED-LEARNING, AND PERIODIC BEHAVIORS IN ECONOMIES, TECHNOLOGIES, AND GENERATIONS R.E. Kinra, Undergraduate University Research Fellow, Office of Honors Programs, and J.F. Amend*, College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX  77843-4466  U.S.A.  As medical educators strive to prepare qualified physicians who are responsive to societal needs, systems of medical education continually reform themselves to meet the demands of changing society.  Understanding the interactions between processes of medical education and behaviors of surrounding societal systems is crucial to appropriate improvement of medical education (Ludmerer, 1999). Reforms in medical education provide for constructive adaptation in the educational system’s process, content, and organization. Major societal systems that impact medicine and medical education include economies, technologies, and human generations.  Change is often recognized to occur in these systems with varying periodicities, often producing cyclical or pulsatile patterns.  Numerous studies have analyzed economic “long-waves” to describe behavior of economies (Kondratieff, 1925; Chevallier, 2000), invention-innovation cycles to describe patterns in technological advancement (Marchetti, 1980; Kleinknecht, 1990), and generational cycles to describe changes in dominant attitudes and values (Strauss and Howe, 1991). In seeking to discover how medical education responds to such societal changes, this research analyzes temporal dynamics of two examples of medical educational reform (Flexner Report; Problem-Based-Learning) in their contexts of coexisting societal environments.  Through evaluation of temporal associations between cyclic behaviors of societal systems and specific reforms in medical education, putative cause and effect relationships may be proposed. As societal systems periodically repeat their behaviors, knowledge of medical education’s past responses can shed light on current interactions. This type of analysis may enlighten medical educators and decision-makers responsible for progress in medical educational institutions and medical curricula.   (Reva Kinra is a Medical Science Scholar, College of Medicine, Texas A&M University Health Sciences Center. Support from the Office of Honors Programs, Texas A&M University is gratefully acknowledged. This work was also supported in part by the Wylie Distinguished Teaching Professorship in Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M University.)
G3	MEDICAL STUDENT CLASS-PERSONALITY: IT’S INFLUENCE ON LEARNING R. C. Kolbeck, Ph.D.*, E.W. Inscho, Ph.D., M.W. Brands, Ph.D., Department of Physiology, Medical College of Georgia (MCG), Augusta, GA 30912  U.S.A.  The Department of Physiology offers first year medical students an 11 credit Medical Physiology course as part of the first year curriculum.  The course has been taught to Medical Students ever since MCG was established as the state’s primary Medical School in Augusta in 1828, by the Georgia General Assembly.  Throughout these years, our department’s teaching faculty have often remarked about a commonly observed phenomenon – that is, each class of students, as a group, exhibits a distinct “personality”.  Explanations as to what causes people (and classes) to think, feel, and behave in specific ways will be left to the social scientists to explain.  Undoubtedly the dynamic interactions of groups of people are influenced by a variety of factors including the group’s mix of race, religion, gender, and politics, as well as the influence of the personalities of class and faculty leaders.  Whatever its cause, one thing is certain.  A class’s attitude has a strong influence on its ability to learn.  The primary tenet of this writing is that the attitude of a class of students can, and must, be influenced in such a way to enhance its ability to perform.  A case in point was presented to us several years ago when a class with a particular litigious “personality” left both faculty and students discomforted.  Student performance suffered as judged by exam averages.  Medical school administrators responded by creating guidelines that strictly defined course policies and procedures.  A Center for Education Excellence was created and workshops were offered which taught faculty how to present lectures and how to write exams.  Course directors were encouraged to serve as student mentors and to maintain an open door policy.  An environment of professionalism and respect was created where the students were treated as “junior colleagues”.  The results have been dramatic as reflected by a distinct positive change in class attitude and student performance.  Many factors can facilitate or hinder a students ability to learn.  We propose that medical school administrators seriously consider implementing changes that impact on class personality in such a way as to promote learning.
G4	EFFECTS OF A SUMMER LEARNING ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM ON FIRST-YEAR MEDICAL STUDENT RETENTION D.L. Weaver, M.A. and D.L. McWhorter, Ph.D.* Departments of Student Services and Anatomy, The University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine, Kansas City, MO 64106  U.S.A. The transition from undergraduate education to medical school may present an insurmountable challenge to underrepresented-minority (URM), disadvantaged (DA), and nontraditional (NT) students.  A growing attrition rate and a lengthening of undergraduate medical education are critical problems in medical school education.  Commencing July 2000, the Summer Learning Enhancement Program (SLEP) was implemented at the University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine (UHS-COM) to address these concerns.  The SLEP is a one-week, optional course offered to pre-matriculating URM, DA, and NT medical students.  During the SLEP course, students receive the first three lectures in Biochemistry, Gross Anatomy, Histology and Physiology.  Moreover, SLEP participants receive instruction on time management, concept mapping, memory techniques, and test-taking strategies.  Students take a written examination over the 12 basic science lectures at the conclusion of the SLEP.  To date, fifty students have participated in the SLEP program and none have been dismissed from UHS-COM.  Academic dismissal of first-year students over the past four years (i.e., two years preceding SLEP and two years following SLEP) has declined from 2.4% to 1.7%.  Overall, students have evaluated the SLEP as being extremely beneficial in their transition to medical school.  These preliminary results suggest that pre-matriculation, academic support programs, such as the SLEP may offer medical schools a low-cost, short-duration method for improving student retention, and an equal opportunity for URM, DA and NT students to succeed in medical school.
G5	A NATIONAL SURVEY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BASIC SCIENCE EDUCATORS AND THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN MEDICAL COLLEGES, G.C. Rosenfeld, Ph.D.1*, N.K. Krane, M.D.2,  J. Menna, Ph.D.3, B. Weaver, Ph.D.4, Assistant Dean for Educational Programs, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, TX  77225 U.S.A.1; Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112 U.S.A.2; Associate Dean for Medical Education, University of Arkansas Medical School, Little Rock, AR 72205 U.S.A.3; Assistant Dean, Curriculum Development and Management, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294 U.S.A.4 Basic science educator (BSE) involvement in undergraduate medical education is essential. A failure of BSEs to be directly represented in the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) national and regional meetings where medical education issues are discussed could leave that important group in a position from which they can neither contribute to nor profit from the larger discussions concerning medical education.  To clarify this issue, an electronic survey of basic science course directors at all U.S. and Canadian allopathic medical schools was conducted.  In addition to obtaining demographic information on the respondents, information was obtained on their current or past medical education activities (research, publications, presentations, etc.), their attendance at meetings related to the teaching of their discipline, the medical education literature they read, and the extent to which medical education activities are valued, encouraged, and financially supported by their local institution.  The results of the survey were used to: (1) determine the actual participation by BSEs in AAMC meetings, (2) examine the BSE relationship, or lack thereof, with the AAMC, (3) examine how the relationship of BSEs and the AAMC could be strengthened, and (4) help formulate a set of recommendations for submission to the AAMC regarding strategies that could be used to include BSEs as meaningful participants in the dialog to improve undergraduate medical education.
G6	USING THE EMOTIONAL STATES ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUE TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ ENTHUSIASM FOR LEARNING John L. Szarek, Ph.D.*, Department of Pharmacology, Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University, Huntington WV, 25701 U.S.A. Purpose:  The purpose of my study was to assess first year medical students’ emotions during learning and to explore ways to use the results to increase their enthusiasm for learning. Method:  I used the Emotional States Assessment Technique (Walker, 2001) to assess the percentage of time students (n = 46) experienced the emotions associated with anxiety, contentment, dejection, and enthusiasm. The specific events in their learning that caused their emotion(s) were obtained and coded using themes identified in their comments. Students’ suggestions on ways to increase their enthusiasm about learning also were collected and coded.  Results:  The table summarizes for each category the percentage of time (mean ± SD), and the emotions and specific experience themes which received the highest frequency counts (number in parentheses).   Category Percentage Emotion Experience Anxiety 27% +/- 20% Anxious (38) Performance on test (29) Contentment 27% +/- 19% Comfortable (28) Accomplishment/completing task (16) Dejection 12% +/- 10% Weary (32) Long days/amount of information (25) Enthusiasm 33% +/- 18% Excited (25) Feeling prepared/learning (17)   Pertaining to students’ suggestions, they felt that enhancing faculty teaching skills (19) and better time management on their part (23) would help to enhance their enthusiasm for learning. Conclusion:  Based on these results, I concluded that the students’ learning experience, early in their careers as medical students, is stimulating and that they feel good about their learning. Further, faculty workshops focusing on teaching skills and student workshops on study skills would help to increase students’ enthusiasm for learning.