Student perceptions on activity-based learning in physiology

Abstract

Background: Concept building is very important for learning physiology. Active involvement of the students when a particular topic is being taught has been hypothesized to benefit the students to learn physiology effectively and overcome lack of self-directed learning. Aims and Objectives: To find students’ perspectives regarding the activity-based teaching-learning method. Materials and Methods: An educational interventional study in physiology included 100 1st MBBS students and involved activities such as multiple choice questions, questions based on graphs, fill in the blanks, match the columns, and complete the flow chart; preceding and following seven lectures in endocrine system. Closed-ended questions in the pre-validated student perception questionnaire were analyzed on Microsoft Excel. Results: There was a positive feedback regarding the usefulness of the method in creating interest in the topics taught and also understanding of concepts. 76% of students also agreed that they were driven to resources in an attempt to solve the activities. Conclusions: Analysis of students’ perceptions suggests the efficacy of this method to convert didactic teaching to active learning. Overall, students liked this method as a useful and interesting tool for learning physiology.