Second year medical students’ feedback on teaching-learning methodologies and evaluation methods in Pharmacology: a questionnaire based study

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Background: Pharmacology enables medical students with the art of rational prescriptions of drugs. It is one of the rapidly evolving subjects in medical sciences. The purpose of the study was to assess whether teaching-learning methodologies and evaluation methods are supporting the curriculum goals and what modifications can be made for the benefit of medical students.Methods: After approval by the Institutional Ethics Committee the study was carried out in January-February 2017. A total of 128 students of 2nd MBBS were administered a pre-validated questionnaire after explaining the purpose of the study. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis of data. Frequency was expressed as percentage.Results: A total response rate of 93.75% was observed. Most of the students mentioned cardiovascular system (20.8%) as the most interesting topic. 78.3% preferred teaching by use of combination of both audio-visual aids and chalk and board. Majority of the students rated practical classes as similar to theory (34.2%). 91.7% students mentioned that seminars are useful to them. 95% of students are interested in continuation of the integrated classes conducted at the end of each chapter. 98.3% of students for written tests and 90% for viva voce responded positively for the need of such periodic evaluation in addition to university prescribed evaluations. 95% students mentioned that field visits helps them in better understanding of pharmacology.Conclusions: The present study helped us to elicit student preferences regarding teaching and evaluation methods in pharmacology. Implementation of the same would be helpful for better outcome of students.