Abstract
The introduction of the problem-based learning (PBL) may be a very uncomfortable problem for the students originally exposed to the didactic methods of teaching and learning. Our medical and pharmaceutical curriculum is yet to adopt this new method of learning and as such this study looks forward to exposing some aspects of the traditional style as well as introducing to the students the new method using PBL. It is envisaged that in the five-year Pharmacy program, the students would be exposed to and monitored and their academic performance vis-à-vis their professional competencies adjudged using this two styles of teaching anatomy. A total of one hundred and fifty 200 level Pharmacy students were randomly divided into fifteen groups of ten per group during their 2 semester course in Anatomy in the academic year 2007/2008 session. The students were exposed to both the PBL and traditional methods of teaching anatomy alternately. At the end of the period, 150 structured questionnaires wereadministered to the students and analyzed statistically. Results from this preliminary study does show that the PBL method of teaching Anatomy to Pharmacy students has strong positive impact in the general perception and knowledge build of the students in their 200 level studies despite the obvious challenges of the environment. Key words: Pharmacy students, traditional method.
Highlights
Human anatomy is a fundamental element of modern medical and pharmaceutical curriculum in many medical colleges across the world (Wang et al, 2010)
The first objective of this study was to compare the traditional method of teaching anatomy with the new problem-based learning (PBL) method in 200 level Pharmacy students of the University of Lagos
Forty seven percent of these students said they have been taught Anatomy by both the PBL and traditional methods combined while 22.6% said only the traditional method and 21.1% by the PBL method only
Summary
Human anatomy is a fundamental element of modern medical and pharmaceutical curriculum in many medical colleges across the world (Wang et al, 2010). Anatomy is one of the first year subjects which are common for all the basic health science courses in the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Lagos, Nigeria. It has its origin from ‘anatomia’ a Greek word meaning to ‘cut up’ or ‘cut open. Anatomy teaching as practiced by most traditional medical schools has limitation in meeting the educational needs of students. Researchers in medical and pharmaceutical education are becoming increasingly aware that using a variety of teaching methods may improve retention of material, as well as enhance students' adaptability in problem-solving situations (Vaughn and Baker, 2001)
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