Using Sensory Approach to Teach Medicinal Plants: a Before and After Study

Abstract

Introduction: The most commonly-used method of teaching medicinal plants courses among the faculty of Traditional Medicine is a lecture-based slideshow, but we hypothesize that herb knowledge could be reinforced by using a sensory approach in which students have the opportunity to interact with these plants using their five senses. The aim of this study was to obtain students’ knowledge about the morphological characteristics of current medicinal plants. The students learned about the plants using all senses before, immediately after, and 40 days after intervention. We also assessed the satisfaction rate of students as a result of this educational intervention. Methods: As a pre-test, 27 students who had attended medicinal herb classes answered a questionnaire with open-ended questions about the morphological characteristics of herbs. Immediately after the educational intervention, for their post-test, students filled a questionnaire comprised of the same questions on the pre-test. The mean scores of students in pre-test (A) and post-test (B) were calculated. Forty days after the aforementioned session, students answered a different questionnaire covering the previously discussed morphological characteristics of herbs. The mean scores of participants in this exam were C. A and B, A and C as well as B and C were compared and analyzed by SPSS v.17 (p≤0.001). This workshop was evaluated by a questionnaire. Results: There was a significant difference between A and B, B and C as well as A and C (P-value= 0.001). The rate of student satisfaction on five items of the questionnaire was higher than 90%.Conclusion: Exclusive textbook-based learning of medicinal plants might not be sufficient to understand them, and it seems useful for the faculties to integrate physical sensory experiences into herbal educational methods.