Considerations that affect the type of teaching method employed in undergraduate studies and medical schools are addressed, with attention to the current emphasis on the lecture method and alternative educational experiences that require students to be active, independent learners and problem solvers. Perceived academic priorities and the allocation of professors' time affect the implementation of alternative teaching methods. Methods that foster active and independent but guided learning require enormous amounts of faculty time and energy, especially for pedagogic activities that require personalized attention to small groups of students or to the individual student. Some projections indicate that an average professor spends about 75% of professional time on activities other than teaching, and in the school of medicine this figure would be about 85%. One possible future educational and administrative scenario is that the administration may choose to offer incentives to faculty to introduce methods leading to more active learning on a limited basis. Administrators may also introduce administrative measures and incentives to gradually overcome the traditional faculty resistance to implementing active learning/teaching methods on a large scale. (SW)