teachers teach knowledge to students. The knowledge being taught in medical schools in Sri Lanka comes mainly from textbooks and journals and, unfortunately, very little from knowledge generated locally through research. Knowledge is the easiest aspect to teach and can be done using lectures, tutorials and guided reading assignments. Second, teachers teach manual and mental skills by demonstrating the relevant procedures to the students and then by getting the student to practice them under supervision. Most of the manual and mental skills required of medical students are related to the diagnosis and management of patients. Third, teachers teach desirable attitudes to students and this is probably the most difficult and the most neglected aspect of medical education today. Teachers teach attitudes or rather student learn attitudes from observing and experiencing teacher behaviour. They do not learn attitudes by reading textbooks nor by listening to what teachers say. In addition to acquiring compassionate attitudes of empathy and caring for the sick, students need to develop a scientific attitude to solving problems and should value scientific research as a tool for generating new knowledge in the field of health. Can medical teachers be taught how to teach desirable attitudes to students? My opinion is (there is only scanty research evidence on this aspect) that the theoretical aspects can be taught in the context of teacher training workshops. But this does necessarily translate into actual behaviour in which desirable attitudes are demonstrated by the teachers in their work as teachers, clinicians and researchers. Students learn attitudes from what teachers actually do (and not from what they say) when they carry out their work in helping students learn. Sociological studies done in medical schools have shown that teachers often become role models to students during the early years of the medical