Undergraduate
medical students feedback on teaching and evaluation method in Pharmacology
Dr. Usha Joshi*, Dr. Rajesh Hishikar, Dr. M. Agrawal
Department of Pharmacology, Pt. J. N. M.
Medical College Raipur.492001. (C.G.)
*Corresponding Author E-mail: ushajoshi2012@gmail.com
ABSTRACT:
Background: Students are the backbone of
our upcoming society. They are our future reflection. The students are in the
best position to comment on the effectiveness of any teaching system.
Objective: To assess the attitude,
perception and feedback of student on teaching method in pharmacology and
implement it for improvement.
Material and
Methods: This
was a cross sectional study. A questionnaire was designed and given to second MBBS students of fifth semester
(n =143). They were requested to fill in and make suggestion according to the
options given and were also free to express their own comments.
Result: Most of the students considered
pharmacology as one of the most important subject in medical curriculum but
they felt there should be more emphasis on clinical pharmacology. Undergraduate students were satisfied with tutorials, practical classes, seminars
and revision classes. They preferred
lecture with blackboard technique for taking notes during class but they also
were in favour of combination of both blackboard and
power point along with discussion for 15 minute at the end during lectures.
Students also found class tests, terminal and pre university examinations
helpful in their preparation of the final exams. Study also revealed that the
students were more comfortable in discussing their queries with demonstrators
and postgraduate students.
Conclusion: The present study has helped
us to assess the students preference regarding pharmacology teaching which
would be helpful in modifying undergraduate pharmacology teaching pattern.
KEYWORDS: Medical undergraduate, pharmacology teaching,
questionnaire, feedback, evaluation.
INTRODUCTION:
Pharmacology curriculum plays an integral
role in medical education. The main aim of teaching Pharmacology is to impart
the basic knowledge of the drugs and ability of selecting appropriate ones for
a particular disease. In India Pharmacology is introduced in third semester to
the medical students and is horizontally integrated with other subjects like
Pathology, Microbiology and Forensic Medicine. The training in Pharmacology
takes place by way of didactic lectures, audio-visual aids, problem based
learning methods using various clinical problems and practical curriculum
includes animal experiments, prescription writing and solving the clinical
problems. Learning Pharmacology to choose and prescribe drugs is a major
challenge encountered by students¹.
In our college, Pharmacology theory
teaching comprises of a series of didactic lectures using Blackboard and chalk
technique as well as PowerPoint presentations covering General and Systemic
Pharmacology. Practical Pharmacology includes the Dosage forms, Routes of drug
administration, Prescription writing, Solving the clinical problems, adverse
drug reaction, Drug interactions, Rational drug combination, and Dispensing
pharmacy classes. Animal experiments are not done instead computer assisted
learning (CAL) is used to explain various graphs on animal experiments. Apart
from these we also conduct tutorial classes and student’s seminar
presentations. To evaluate the student’s progress we conduct class test after
completion of a system which consists of multiple choice questions and short
answer questions. We also conduct terminal exams consisting of theory and
practical tests. The theory test consists of long questions and short notes
based on drug classification, mechanism of action, the basis of use,
therapeutic uses and adverse effects of various drugs for a time duration of
three hours. The theory test is followed by the practical exams which includes
Viva-voce, spotting, dispensing pharmacy, prescription writing, drug
interaction and clinical quiz. Viva-voce is important for the development of
student’s communication and interaction skills.
Traditional Pharmacology teaching in
medical school is discipline based and teacher centred
with a heavy emphasis on acquiring factual knowledge about drugs ² and does not
train the students adequately for therapeutics ³. Attempts have been made all
over India to make the teaching of Pharmacology more interesting and relevant 4 . The aim is student should
develop transferrable skills, which would help not only for undergraduate
education but to learn throughout the medical career5.Currently the
student’s feedback represents the primary means used by different program to
assess their methodology6. Feedback
can help us to understand and assess the students so as to make teaching more
effective. Such studies are important to make appropriate changes in the
curriculum. Thus the present study was conducted to evaluate the teaching and
assessment in pharmacology for undergraduate medical students.
MATERIAL AND
METHODS:
The study was conducted at the Department
of Pharmacology of Pt. J.N.M. Medical college, Raipur (C.G.).This is a
cross-sectional study and the study subject were fifth semester MBBS students
(n=143) studying in the Pt. J. N. M. Medical College, Raipur.
A questionnaire was designed and was given
to the students (Appendix - 1). They were asked to fill up the questionnaire.
Students were allowed to offer their own suggestion and comments in addition to
the available options. Sufficient time was given to complete questionnaire.
STATISTICAL
ANALYSIS:
The
data was analyzed by percentage wise distribution of the various parameter used
in the questionnaire.
RESULTS:
One hundred and forty three students
participated in the study. Regarding their opinion about the subject
Pharmacology, 46.15 % of all the students expressed that the subject is very
useful and important while 32.16 % of students found the subject as useful and
interesting (figure 1).
FIGURE 1
About 50.34% students found lecture with
blackboard as the best method, while 38.46% students found lecture with both
blackboard and power point presentation along with 15 minutes of discussion as
the best method of teaching (figure 2).
FIGURE 2
Tutorials, revision classes and student’s
seminar were rated as very useful or useful by most of the students as shown in
figure 3. As many as 90.20% students were interested in making notes during
class. Class tests were found to be very useful by 46.85% of students, useful
by 48.95% whereas the terminal and Pre-university Exams were found to be very
useful by 73.42% of students (figure 3).
FIGURE 3
Regarding difficult, interesting and easy
topics of Pharmacology, Central nervous system was found to be the most
difficult topic(38.21%) while Cardiovascular system was found to be interesting
as well as easy by most of the students (figure 4- Many students opted for more
than one option).
FIGURE 4
Regarding Pharmacology practical classes,
dispensing pharmacy was found to be useful by 30.06%, average by 48.25 % and
not useful by 21.67% of the students; Clinical pharmacology classes was found to
be useful by 63.04%, average by 32.16% and not useful by 4.79% of the students;
Experimental classes(CAL) were found to be useful by 25.87%, average by 67.13%
and not useful by 6.99%(figure 5).
FIGURE 5
Most of the students opined that the two
way teaching (interactive teaching) was more effective(77.62%) as compared to
one way teaching(figure 6).
FIGURE 6
Study also revealed that 36.36 % , 33.56 %
and 30.06% of the
students were comfortable in discussing their queries with the Demonstrators,
postgraduate students and Prof. / Assoc.Prof. /Asst.Prof. respectively (figure 7).
FIGURE 7
DISCUSSION:
Pharmacology in medical science is an ever
changing medical subject. It serves as a foundation stone for clinical
practice. As suggested by Theo7 that undergraduate training should
lay the foundation for choosing and prescribing drugs rationally. The goal of
educator should be “…….prepare students to become competent clinicians,
clinical thinkers, critical thinkers, problem solver and collaborators, team
players, self directed learner and effective communicators”8. The
present study was done to determine the attitude, perception and feedback of
student on pharmacology teaching as feedback is essential to know the
effectiveness of the process. In our study student’s opinion revealed important
information. Most of the students were aware that pharmacology is one of the
most important subjects in the medical curriculum. Majority of the students
preferred lecture with blackboard technique as the best way of teaching. There
may be various reasons for this preference like lecture with blackboard allows
better interaction between teacher and students. A chalkboard allows
spontaneity, flexibility and non linearity 9. Another group of
students deferred from the above mentioned views and instead preferred lectures
with the combination of blackboard, power point for explaining diagrams and
fifteen minutes discussion in the end as the best way of teaching. The reason
behind this could be that adding power point to the lectures has in addition a
visual impact which helps the students to retain the topic and a fifteen minute
discussion in the last helps them to correlate the entire event of the lecture.
According to one study, traditional classes with blackboard presentation were
the most favoured by students from biomedicine and
medicine courses 10 while another study observed that most students
preferred power point presentations over traditional chalk and talk 11.Thus
we conclude that both the teaching methods can be used in combination for the
effective delivery of classroom instructions.
Tutorials, revision classes, seminars and practicals
were found to be useful by most of the students. Tutorials helps in the
development of higher level intellectual skills such as reasoning and problem
solving, the development of attitudes and the acquisition of interpersonal
skills such as listening , speaking , arguing and group leadership 12
. In one Indian study on the use of computer assisted learning (CAL) it was
pointed out by author that a large number of students expressed the advantages
of CAL as reduction in animal use, clear estimation of drug effects, repeated
observations of experiments and demonstration of difficult experiments 13.Students
also emphasized that the lecture should be interactive. Students found the
class tests, terminal and pre-university exams very useful for the preparation
of the final university examinations. They also suggested incorporation of more
clinical pharmacology classes, small group discussions and more time for
problem based learning .In our college teachers also make use of audiovisual
aids during didactic lectures. Tutorials, practicals,
seminars and solving the clinical problems have already been introduced.
The evaluation of pharmacology teaching is
important because it help us to know about our student’s needs, their
perception regarding pharmacology, topics which they find difficult, the
teaching method which has maximum impact in their understanding. This study has
helped us in knowing the student’s preference regarding pharmacology teaching
which would be helpful in modifying undergraduate teaching pattern.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We
sincerely acknowledge our fifth semester MBBS students for their
participation.
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Sudha J.
Graduate training programmes in Pharmacology in
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APPENDIX – 1 (The Questionnaire):
1) What is your
opinion regarding pharmacology?
a) Useful but boring.
b) Useful and interesting.
c) Very useful and important.
d) Useful but difficult.
2) Which teaching
method do you think is the best method?
a) Lectures with power point presentation.
b) Lectures with black board technique.
c) Lectures with both power point
presentation and blackboard technique.
d) Lectures with both power point
presentation and blackboard technique and discussion for 15 min. at the end.
3) What is your opinion
regarding tutorial classes -
a) Very useful. b) Useful. c) Average. d) Not useful.
4) What is your
opinion regarding revision classes at the end of the courses-
a) Very useful. b) Useful. c) Average. d) Not useful.
5) What is your
opinion regarding seminar presentation by students -
a) Very useful. b) Useful. c) Average. d) Not useful.
6) Are you
interested in making notes during lecture -
a)
Yes.
b) No.
7) Class test taken
at the end of the system are -
a) Very useful . b) Useful. c) Average. d) Not useful.
8) Terminal
examinations/pre-university examinations held during the course are -
a) Very useful b) Useful c) Average d)
Not useful
9) Which systems
did you find difficult -
a) General pharmacology f) Respiratory system
b) Autonomic nervous system g) GIT
c) Cardiovascular system h) Autocoids
d) Antimicrobial agents i)
Endocrines
e) Central nervous system j) any other (specify it)
10) Which systems
did you find interesting -
a) General pharmacology f) Respiratory system
b) Autonomic nervous system g) GIT
c) Cardiovascular system h) Autocoids
d) Antimicrobial agents i)
Endocrines
e) Central nervous system j) any other (specify it)
11) Which system
did you find easy –
a) General pharmacology f) Respiratory system
b) Autonomic nervous system g) GIT
c) Cardiovascular system h) Autocoids
d) Antimicrobial agents i)
Endocrines
e) Central nervous system j) any other (specify it)
12) How do you
rate the dispensing pharmacy classes –
a) Useful (b) Average (c) Not useful
13) How do you
rate the experimental pharmacology classes –
a) Useful (b) Average (c) Not useful
14) How do you
rate the clinical pharmacology classes –
a) Useful (b) Average (c) Not useful
15) Which teaching
pattern do you think is more effective –
a) One way teaching. (b)
Interactive teaching (two way teaching- lectures followed by queries solving).
16) Whom do you
feel comfortable with discussing your queries regarding a given topic -
a) Professors/ Associate professors/ Asstt. Professors.
b) Demonstrators/ Tutors.
c) Postgraduate students.
Received
on 04.06.2015 Modified
on 10.06.2015
Accepted
on 16.06.2015 ©A&V Publications All right reserved
Res.
J. Pharmacology & P’dynamics. 7(2): April- June
2015; Page 82-88
DOI: 10.5958/2321-5836.2015.00017.8