Student's Perception About Integrated Teaching
In An Undergraduate Medical Curriculum
1256-1259
Correspondence
Kalpana Kumari M.K
Flat 710, C-Block, Sterling Residency, Dollars Colony,
Bangalore 560094, Karnataka, India
Email : Kalpank@Gmail.Com
The: objective of this study was to analyze the results of a survey on students regarding the integration of their institution’s health science curriculum.
Methods: One hundred and twenty five (125) students of the 5th term of the undergraduate medical course were given a questionnaire on the integration sessions. The questionnaire with a five point Likert scale, with a minimum of one and a maximum of five rating, was administered in October 2009. The data from the questionnaire was compiled and analyzed by using the SPSS version 16.
Results: One hundred and twenty two students out of the one hundred and twenty five answered the questionnaire 122/125 (97.6%). The reliability of the scale was 0.50 (Cronbachs alpha -0.5). 91.8% students agreed that integrated teaching helped in the appreciation and application of the basic science knowledge to health and disease. 82% agreed that integrated teaching improved the performance in clinics and university examinations. The responses were equally distributed in favour of traditional teaching (36%) and integrated teaching (30.3%), while 33.6% responses were of indecisisive. 51.7% of the students preferred the horizontal to vertical integrated teaching. Many positive aspects were listed by the students, such as “integrated teaching improves the understanding of the topics” and a few negative remarks such as “lengthy” were mentioned. The students suggested mind mapping, concept maps and small group discussions to improve the interaction.
Conclusion: The students recognized that integrating the medical subjects was useful and of interest to them, and that they should be continued.