Active Teaching and Learning Strategies in Medical Education: Perception and Barriers among Faculty Members at Oman Medical College,Sohar/Bowshar Sultanate of Oman

Abstract

Background: Medical education is constantly evolving .It is more effective and long lasting if it is self-initiated and self-directed. Active teaching and learning strategy (ATLS) is the process by which a medical student independently, or in a group, identifies his or her learning objectives and actively seeks information necessary to achieve objectives. The study aims at identifying the faculty’s use of active teaching and learning strategies and to explore the perceived barriers to its use in undergraduate teaching in the medical college. Methods: A cross sectional survey based study was carried out at Oman Medical College. All teaching faculties consented to participate were included in the study. Data was collected on self-administered questionnaire in which core elements were divided - Active teaching and learning strategies, barriers for active teaching and learning strategies and self-perception of the faculty about attributes of students. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS (IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0). Data were expressed in frequencies, mean and percentages. Results: Total 60/ 74 faculty participated in the study; response rate is 81%; 38.3% are male and 61.7% are female. Almost half of them are 40-50 years old and 50% faculty having total teaching experience >10 years. Majority of faculty are using ATLS as personal interest besides course requirements. Faculty’s barriers for not using ATLS are heterogeneous group of students (34%) and not being well prepared for that (41%), too much preparation time (40%), time constraint (46.7%) and lack of learning resources (41.6%). Conclusion: Study results concluded that faculty members are interested in active teaching and learning to improve their teaching and learn more about the use of active learning in the classroom. The main perceived barriers were lack of necessary class time, high comfort level with traditional lectures, and insufficient time to develop materials.