The current emphasis on providing quality undergraduate and postgraduate medical education has focused attention on the educational responsibilities of all doctors. There is a greater awareness of the need to train doctors as educators and courses have been set up to satisfy this need. Some courses, such as those on how to conduct appraisal, are speci®c to one task facing a medical educator. Other courses take a broader view and relate educational theory to practice. In this paper we describe an outcome-based approach in which competence in teaching is de®ned in terms of 12 learning outcomes. The framework provides a holistic approach to the roles of the teacher and supports the professionalism of teaching. Such a framework provides the basis for the development of a curriculum for teaching excellence. It helps to de®ne important competences for different categories of teachers, communicate the areas to be addressed in a course, identify gaps in course provision, evaluate courses, assist in staff planning and allow individuals to assess their personal learning needs. The framework is presented to encourage wider debate.

A proposal is made for the introduction of a method of assessment which has been designed keeping these challenges in mind. The rationale behind this assessment method is described.

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The role of competencies in postgraduate dental education and training has been a major topic of interest in recent years. Concerns have been voiced from all sides of the profession about how the competence of trainees and the quality of training can be assured so that high standards of patient care can be maintained. A three year project which seeks to develop a competency-based assessment system for general professional training is underway which hopes to answer some of the concerns and provide an evidence-based system of assessment for the early postgraduate years. This paper looks at the reasoning behind the project, its aims, and the progress made to date.

Community-based learning (CBL) reflects the principle that political science courses should do more than simply teach students about politics. As participants in the community-based learning track, we believe that courses in our discipline should equip students with the combination of knowledge, skills, and values required to engage in a life of active citizenship. Designing a course that meets these goals is not impossible. Community-based projects include several different types of experiential learning, including: service-learning, community-based learning, and community-based research. We believe that all of these forms of learning about, from, and with the community inspire and encourage students to live an active political life.