Comparison of the effectiveness of lectures based on problems and traditional lectures in physiology teaching in Sudan

Nouralsalhin Abdalhamid Alaagib,Amal Mahmoud Saeed,Omer Abdelaziz Musa

doi:10.1186/s12909-019-1799-0

Nouralsalhin Abdalhamid Alaagib, Amal Mahmoud Saeed + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1799-0

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Abstract

BackgroundLectures are one of the most common teaching methods in medical education. Didactic lectures were perceived by the students as the least effective method. Teaching methods that encourage self-directed learning can be effective in delivering core knowledge leading to increased learning. Problem based learning has been introduced as an active way of learning but it has some obstacles in developing countries where the intake is huge with minimum resources. This study introduces a new teaching approach: lectures based on problems (LBP) and evaluates their effectiveness compared to traditional lectures (TL) in physiology teaching.MethodsLBP and TL were applied in physiology teaching of medical students at University of Science and Technology during their study of introduction to physiology and respiratory physiology courses. Equal number of lectures was given as LBP and as TL in each course. Students were given quizzes at the end of each course which were used to compare the effectiveness of the two types of lectures. A questionnaire was used to assess students’ satisfaction about LBP and the perceived effects of the two methods on the students’ attitude and practice towards learning physiology.ResultsIn LBP the students have better attention (P = 0.002) and more active role (P = 0.003) than in TL. Higher percentage of students think that LBP stimulated them to use references more (P = 0.00006) and to use the lecture time more effectively (P = 0.0001) compared to TL. However, there was no significant difference between LBP and TL in the awareness of the learning objectives. About 64% of students think that LBP is more enjoyable and it improved their understanding of physiology concepts. Comparison of the students’ quiz marks showed that the means of the students’ marks in the introduction to physiology and respiratory courses were higher in the quizzes of LBP than in TL with a significant difference between them ((P = .000), (P = .006) respectively.ConclusionsLBP improved students’ understanding of physiology concepts and increased students’ satisfaction about physiology learning. LBP achieved some of the objectives of PBL with the minimum resources and it can be used to improve the effectiveness of the lectures.

Highlights

lectures based on problems (LBP) 101 to physiology traditional lectures (TL) 9.35 .000**Respiratory LBP 1462 9.68 ± 2.59 2.74 .006* TLThroughout the lecture the instructor and the students try to link the lecture contents to the learning objectives and to the clinical scenario which contributed to the increase in students’ attention during the lecture
Transformation began with the introduction of problem-based learning (PBL) in some medical schools; more recently, lectures has increasingly been replaced by team-based learning
Higher percentage of students think that LBP stimulated them to use references more (P = 0.00006) and to use the lecture time more effectively (P = 0.0001) compared to TL with statistically highly significant difference between the two methods

Summary

Introduction

One of the most active interactions during LBP occurred when students shared the key words they have worked out and their suggestions of what the clinical problem could be about. This encouraged them to follow the lecture with enthusiasm and curiosity to find out whether they were right and to add what they missed. By highly structuring the activities in LBP e.g. introducing a clinical problem, identifying difficult terminologies, analyzing the problem for clues and key words, formulating the learning objectives by the students and sharing the answers of the quizzes with the whole class, an active learning environment was created that enabled students to think, seek for information and use references, speak, and question freely. It is promoted by activity with reflection, collaboration for learning, learner responsibility for learning and learning about learning [9]

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