Objectives: To examine the evidence-base in medical education and psychiatry training, in relation to: the most effective method of imparting the attitudes, skills and knowledge essential to prepare future psychiatrists for modern psychiatric practice; the most effective method of optimising trainees' motivation to learn and their enjoyment of learning; and the most effective method of fostering trainees' commitment to self-directed, life-long learning.
Methods: The current available literature was reviewed by searching medical and education computer data-bases up to December 2001; a web search of evidence-based education was conducted; and the references cited in the articles obtained were scanned for papers not yielded by the database and web searches.
Results: There is evidence to support the use of both the directed and the constructivist approaches to education, there is evidence to support the use of problem-based learning in medical education, and there is no evidence for adult learning theory or transformative learning theory, although elements of both appear to be incorporated into problem-based approaches.
Conclusions: The emphasis in modern medical education is on a con-structivist approach, dominated by problem-based learning and built around small-group activities. Postgraduate psychiatry training could be improved significantly by adopting the evidence-based advances that have been made in education and undergraduate medical education over the past three decades.