• F Jabbar, P Casey, and B D Kelly.
• 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.
• Ir J Med Sci. 2016 Nov 1; 185 (4): 981-984.

BackgroundAt University College Dublin, teaching in psychiatry includes clinical electives, lectures, small-group and problem-based teaching, consistent with international trends.AimsTo determine final-year psychiatry students' attitudes towards teaching methods.MethodsWe 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).ResultsStudents' 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).ConclusionsStudents' 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.

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