Abstract
BackgroundIt has been proved that basic science knowledge learned in the context of a clinical case is actually better comprehended and more easily applied by medical students than basic science knowledge learned in isolation. The present study intended to validate the effectiveness of Clinically Oriented Physiology Teaching (COPT) in undergraduate medical curriculum at Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal, India.MethodsCOPT was a teaching strategy wherein, students were taught physiology using cases and critical thinking questions. Three batches of undergraduate medical students (n = 434) served as the experimental groups to whom COPT was incorporated in the third block (teaching unit) of Physiology curriculum and one batch (n = 149) served as the control group to whom COPT was not incorporated. The experimental group of students were trained to answer clinically oriented questions whereas the control group of students were not trained. Both the group of students undertook a block exam which consisted of clinically oriented questions and recall questions, at the end of each block.ResultsComparison of pre-COPT and post-COPT essay exam scores of experimental group of students revealed that the post-COPT scores were significantly higher compared to the pre-COPT scores. Comparison of post-COPT essay exam scores of the experimental group and control group of students revealed that the experimental group of students performed better compared to the control group. Feedback from the students indicated that they preferred COPT to didactic lectures.ConclusionThe study supports the fact that assessment and teaching patterns should fall in line with each other as proved by the better performance of the experimental group of students compared to the control group. COPT was also found to be a useful adjunct to didactic lectures in teaching physiology.
Highlights
It has been proved that basic science knowledge learned in the context of a clinical case is better comprehended and more applied by medical students than basic science knowledge learned in isolation
From the early 1950s onwards, many medical schools have experimented with so-called innovative curricula, all of which have in one way or another achieved some form of integration of individual basic sciences, or of basic and clinical sciences
Medical educators who have investigated the effects of problem-based learning have found benefits of basic science knowledge learned in a context of clinical problems [1,2]
Summary
It has been proved that basic science knowledge learned in the context of a clinical case is better comprehended and more applied by medical students than basic science knowledge learned in isolation. Medical educators who have investigated the effects of problem-based learning have found benefits of basic science knowledge learned in a context of clinical problems [1,2]. There is evidence that basic science knowledge learned in the context of a clinical case is better comprehended and more applied by medical students than basic science knowledge learned in isolation [3,4,5]. The present study attempted to empirically validate the effectiveness of COPT in undergraduate physiology curriculum
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