Abstract
Significant changes are occurring worldwide in courses for healthcare studies, including medicine and dentistry. Critical evaluation of the place, timing, and content of components that can be collectively grouped as the anatomical sciences has however yet to be adequately undertaken.
Surveys of teaching hours for embryology in US and UK medical courses clearly demonstrate that a dramatic decline in the importance of the subject is in progress, in terms of both a decrease in the number of hours allocated within the medical course and in relation to changes in pedagogic methodologies. In this article, we draw attention to the need to provide within medical and dental curricula a universally accepted terminology for embryology and teratology, to develop core syllabuses and, in addition to providing professional training, to follow the practice of university education in taking students to the frontiers of knowledge.
We also discuss different ways of teaching and assessing embryology and teratology, preferring to see the employment of practical methodologies, and we highlight problems related to the poor attitudes of students towards the perceived clinical relevance of embryology and teratology.