Arunima Chaudhuri1 , Suhrita Paul2 , Ayan Goswami3
BACKGROUND Implementing the new competency based medical education is quite challenging for medical educators while teaching newly admitted undergraduate medical students. We wanted to compare the role of interactive lecture classes with self-directed sessions among first MBBS students in the Department of Physiology during implementation of competency based medical education. METHODS The present study was conducted in the Department of Physiology among two hundred undergraduate medical students after obtaining Institutional Ethical Clearance. Ten interactive lecture classes were compared with ten self-directed learning sessions using pre-test and post-test MCQS. Students’ feedback was collected following the sessions and students were provided with feedback following each session. Feedbacks from facilitators were also taken following the sessions. SPSS version 16 was used to analyse the data. T test was done to compare the different teaching methods. RESULTS Students were more satisfied with the SDL sessions. According to the teachers, students participated and interacted in SDL sessions better when compared to traditional classes. Teachers had to put much more effort to the SDL sessions as compared to traditional lecture sessions to make these sessions effective. There was no difference in performance between traditional lecture classes and self-directed learning sessions in pre-test sessions (50.39 ± 19.41 vs. 52.84 ± 16.01; p value 0.17). Students performed better in post-test sessions (50.39 ± 19.41 vs. 63.38 ± 12.79; p value < 0.0001**) as compared to pretest sessions in interactive lecture classes. Students performed better in posttest sessions (52.84 ± 16.01 vs. 69.79 ± 12.4; p value < 0.0001**) as compared to pre-test sessions during assessment of self-directed learning sessions. Performances of students were also better in SDL sessions as compared to interactive lecture classes in post-test sessions. (69.79 ± 12.4 vs. 63.38 ± 12.79; p value < 0.0001**). CONCLUSIONS Self-directed learning sessions were more effective than interactive lecture classes for teaching physiology to undergraduate medical students and for implementation of competency based medical education. Successful implementation of SDL sessions requires a greater number of teachers as compared to interactive lecture sessions.
