Active learning in the United Kingdom undergraduate dental course.

'Active Learning' is a frequently encountered term much in vogue in educational circles and widely considered in many current textbooks and papers. It is, however, a most difficult term to define. This paper seeks firstly to explore and discuss the meaning of the term with special relation to undergraduate dental education, and then, in a consideration of the different approaches to studying, considers aspects of the current dental undergraduate curriculum, both teaching and assessment, which may have an influence on the student's approach to learning.