Perception about student-led seminars among undergraduate students of a government medical college in Visakhapatnam: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Teaching in India is still controlled by teacher-centered class room which would make them bored and exhausted. Educators now strive to provide the most productive class room experience for their students by facilitating small group discussions within the larger class such as seminar presentation by the students etc. Hence the present study was done to assess the perception of medical students regarding seminars in the curriculum towards a small group teaching activity. Objective is to assess the perception of medical students regarding seminars as a teaching learning activity.Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted among 4th semester undergraduate medical students of Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh in the month of June 2016 to assess their perception regarding seminars in the curriculum. A pre-designed, pre-tested self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data.Results: Total number of study participants were 136. Majority 110 (80.9%) of them agreed that seminar is a good academic activity and is helpful in learning. Around 96 (70%) of the students opined that seminars help students engage in higher order thinking tasks. Majority 93.4% agreed that seminars help students to overcome nervousness. About 91.9% felt seminars improve self-confidence and personality development.Conclusions: Students view that, seminars are more effective in deep understanding of the subject and critical thinking than didactic lectures and helps the students to improve self confidence and communication skills.