| This dissertation presents an argument in favor of a curriculum for undergraduate medical education developed with a Core of Behaviors approach such as that suggested by L. Weed.;In order to discover the ground and identify the complete list of behaviors that must be included in the Core the dissertation pursues a clue taken from the writings of Bernard Lonergan. This clue is then related to a definition of who is a physician and what he does. Thereby the Core of Behaviors of the physician is obtained.;The behaviors in this Core are, next, related to the logic of medical thinking in order to show that they contain it. Then, it is argued that these behaviors make up a method which is isomorphic with those of science. The behaviors are, now, embedded in the horizon of the doctor-patient relation. It is only after this that the behaviors in the Core are expressed as the objectives of medical education.;A strategy that would permit to learn this Core at the level of mastery is explained and related to the learning of clinical skills and basic sciences. The method of evaluation is explained. The last chapter is a critique of the argument.;To construct the argument the history of medical education from the School of Salerno to the present is analyzed. The analysis is used to demonstrate that the Core of Behaviors approach to medical curriculum development is the solution to a real problem in medical education. However, it is argued that the Core of Behaviors proposed by L. Weed himself is neither adequately grounded, nor has it been shown to be complete. |
