Introduction of Pre-Test and Post-Test enhances attentiveness to Physiology lectures – Students’ perceptions in an Indian medical college

摘要

Background: Traditionally, teacher centered didactic lecture classes even though a passive process was found to be dominating the first year MBBS curriculum. Routine lecture class was restructured with introduction of a pre-test to facilitate student’s attentiveness to the lecture and a post-test to evaluate students learning of the key concepts of Physiology. This study was undertaken to determine the perceptions of first year MBBS students about pre and post-tests and to determine if they were effective in enhancing attentiveness and learning Physiology. Methods: Study subjects were 145 first year MBBS students of a South Indian Medical College. Structured pre and post-tests were developed for use during Physiology lecture class. Multiple choice questions were derived from the topic to be lectured. Performance with the key points of Physiology was assessed. Perceptions of the students on the use of pre and post-test in learning physiology were obtained by administering a questionnaire. Results: Perceptions of 136 students (93.79%) was that pre-test is a useful method to be focused on the lecture and hence be more attentive and learn the important points of the lecture, which was also evidenced by their performance on the post-test, which showed a significant improvement with an overall mean score in post-test (4.32±0.9 marks) compared to overall mean score in pre-test (0.41±0.6 marks) which showed a very high statistical significance with a p value ≤ 0.001. Conclusions: The introduction of a pre and post-test in a didactic lecture proved to have significantly achieved the objective of our study by facilitating attentiveness of the students to the lecture and hence better understanding of the key concepts of Physiology.