The Korea Association of Medical Colleges (KAMC) has been developing learning outcomes for basic medical education (BME) since 2012. This initiative is designed to help medical schools implement competency-based medical education. KAMC divided the BME competencies into three domains (clinical practice, scientific concepts and principles, and human beings and society) with learning outcomes for each domain. KAMC plans to revise the learning outcomes to reflect feedback from medical schools, changes in social health needs, and changes in the healthcare environment and healthcare system in the near future. KAMC also plans to specify learning outcomes that integrate the three domains.

Recent changes in educational paradigms that emphasize the performance or outcomes of education are redefining how learning objectives are being described as 'learning outcomes' in various academic disciplines. Medical education is not an exception to this trend. However, it has come to our attention that the key concepts and appropriate descriptions of learning outcomes have not been well understood among educators and that this lack of understanding has hindered our efforts to implement the practice in the field. This study aims to provide a direction to establish and describe learning outcomes by examining previous studies that have focused on setting learning objectives as well as learning outcomes. Setting and describing learning outcomes starts from reflection on the approach of behavioral learning objectives, which overemphasizes learner's acquired knowledge, skills, and attitude in each classroom rather than actual performance. On the other hand, the learning outcome approach focuses on what the learner is able to do as a result of a learning experience. This approach is more learner-friendly and encourages students to lead and be responsible for their learning process. Learning outcomes can best be described when the relevance of actual contexts and the hierarchy of learning objectives are considered. In addition, they should be in the form of context, task, performance, and level, as well as be planned with proper assessment and feedback procedures. When these conditions are met, the learning outcome approach is beneficial to students as it presents a curriculum that is more open to learners. Despite these advantages of the learning outcome approach, there is a possible concern that setting the learning outcomes and describing them can restrict evaluation to lower cognitive skills if the concept of learning outcome is narrowly interpreted or is set too low. To avoid such narrow applications, it is important for educators to understand the comprehensiveness of the learning outcome setting and to consider long-term outcomes embedded in an organizational vision rather than only short-term behavioral outcomes.

The aim of this study is to provide the background of developing guides to clinical performance and basic clinical skills and to introduce how to teach and learn using the guide. The students' performance problems presented in an objective clinical skills examination were disease-centered tertiary hospital clinical care, incomplete performance, doing by rote, and an exam-oriented learning attitude. The problems were caused by a tertiary hospital-based educational environment as well as schools and faculty who are unfamiliar with the concept of patient-centered care. The purpose of the guide to clinical performance and basic clinical skills is to overcome these problems and address the causes. The guides show a clinical presentation approach to primary care; clinical care integrated with knowledge, skills, and attitude; a schematic approach; and a patient-centered attitude. To achieve these goals, a strategy to change the educational culture is important. Curricular reform, faculty development, and improving educational facilities and environments are suggested.

Outcome-based learning is a global trend in medical education. The Korean Association of Medical Colleges (KAMC) has been developing learning objectives for basic medical education (BME) in Korea. In 2012, KAMC published the 1st edition of "Learning outcomes of basic medical education: Clinical competency-centered" in order to promote outcome-based medical education. KAMC has recently revised and updated the learning outcomes of basic medical education in the clinical competency-centered 2nd edition to reflect the suggestions of all medical schools in Korea and improve application of the published learning outcomes for BME in the field of medical education. KAMC has been making efforts to integrate clinical competency-centered learning outcomes with scientific concepts and principle-centered learning outcomes in addition to basic clinical skills and performance in BME.

Learning objectives for human and society-centered basic medical education to improve physicians' ability to practice in a Korean context were developed by the Korean Association of Medical Colleges in 2015-2016. The task-force committee identified eight domains for medical practitioners: human illness, reflection and self-improvement, patient safety, communication and collaboration, medical ethics, legal issues, social accountability, and professionalism. A total of 172 enabling learning outcomes and 42 terminal learning outcomes were identified by the workshop. The workshop members were representatives from 41 medical schools, the Korean Medical Association, and a scientific group (medical ethics, legal issues, and medical communication). The curriculum for "medical humanity and social medicine" was first published in 2007. The human and society-centered learning objectives that were developed will be revised annually.

Medical school students learn a lot about medical knowledge and clinical experience in the classroom. Teaching is a main focus in medical schools; therefore, it is necessary to identify the characteristics of good teaching. The aim of this study is to analyze the characteristics of high-quality education in medical schools. In this study, in-depth interviews were conducted over two weeks on twelve fourth-year medical students. Participants were asked to define high-quality education, list the general ways in which high-quality classes are delivered, mention cases where they have experienced high-quality teaching, and describe the attitude required of students to make high-quality education possible. The results showed that students want to be taught in an interactive way on the core content needed in an actual clinical setting for the goal of cultivating primary care physicians. They want their education to include not only medical knowledge, but also liberal art subjects such as politics, economics, sociology, culture and ethics education to help instill a sound value system. In particular, students stressed the importance of instructors delivering appropriate post-evaluation feedback, and they also emphasized that learner mindset and attitude is important in supporting high-quality teaching in class. This paper also summarizes the elements of high-quality teaching in terms of educational goals, content, and method, and examines cases of instructors who have delivered high-quality classes.

This study analyzed participation experiences in a voluntarily learning community using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Sixty freshmen and sophomore medical school students in 10 learning communities participated in the study. At the time of the survey, learning communities had been operating for 10 weeks and had weekly in-person meetings. Satisfaction questionnaires and reflective essays were given and analyzed. The results showed that learning community experiences were effective in promoting students' learning motivation, cooperative learning, responsibility, and communication skills. Three essential topics and nine subjects were analyzed in the reflective essays. Three essential topics were conflict with each other due to the difference, forming deep relationships, and sharing and learning together with an in-depth study. The results of this study will contribute to collaborative learning culture and the development of learning communities in medical schools.

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that influence school life satisfaction based on personal variables, self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, and perception of the educational environment at a medical school in Korea. The data were collected from 228 medical students who agreed to participate in the study at a medical school. The Dundee Ready Medical Environment Measure (DREEM) and the self-esteem scale by Rosenberg were used. Questions measuring satisfaction of medical school life and interpersonal relationships (with professors, with senior/junior students, and with friends) were asked using a 5 point Likert scale. The data were analyzed by t-test, analysis of variance, and multiple regression analysis. The satisfaction of medical school life of male students was significantly higher than female students and increased with years of schooling. In DREEM, the students' perception of teachers decreased by school years. The relationship with senior and junior students of third year students was higher than other school years. The result of the regression analysis to determine the variables that affect satisfaction of medical school life showed that interpersonal relationships with senior and junior students, the students' social self-perception, and the students' perception of learning were significant. The results of this study will help medical schools in their plans to improve the level of satisfaction for the happiness and successful academic achievements of their students.