FACILITATION AND EVALUATION OF STUDENTS LEARNING

Abstract

Various methods of teaching are lectures, seminars, tutorials, group discussions and demonstrations. Most of these methods involve only passive learning. Increased emphasis is being laid on students centred and integrated teaching. Both vertical and horizontal integrated teaching has been recommended by the medical council of India. The superiority of such novel methods over other existing methods in facilitating students learning has not been adequately assessed and hence the present study was undertaken. A 3 year study was performed in MBBS Phase -II students of 3 batches. Integrated teaching (seminar on various segments of a topic) was carried out in 3 different ways to each batch of students. Batch 1: Subject experts (faculty) delivered talk on segments of topic allotted. Batch 2: Randomly selected 7-10 students presented the topic (it was guided by faculty) Batch 3: similar to batch 2 but here a pre-session test (validated MCQs) was conducted. About 10 topics were covered in a year (same for all the batches) and were announced 15days prior to the seminar for the students to prepare. The seminar was for 2 hrs and a post -session test was conducted using pre- validated MCQs to assess the learning outcome. Post-sessions score (mean ± SD) of all batches was calculated and analyzed by ANOVA. There was a significant improvement in the performance of batch 3 as compared to other batches. Pre-session tests promote students participation in teaching learning activities and also facilitates the learning process and the outcome