Background: Medical education has been reliant on didactic lectures, which are predominantly teacher-centered learning. Competency-based education was introduced in North America and with this came a paradigm shift in how schools conceptualize curricula and measure learning outcomes. This modern approach started a change away from traditional lecture-based and teacher-centered curricula to a more student-centric approach using various tools. Competency based education is widely regarded as an outcome-based approach to design, implement and evaluate the curriculum using widely accepted competencies. Authorities recommend seven core competencies which have various indicators to address student performance. The main purpose of this research is to utilize active learning tools to enhance this approach and then assess competencies in the first year of medical school to improve academic outcomes as well as exposing students to competency domains on which they will be assessed and to ultimately create a complete physician. Methods: The study was conducted at a medical school during the first semester of medical school and included 145 students. Various active learning tools, such as modified case-based learning, quizzes, and case discussions, were used to assess competency in a biochemistry and genetics course, and these were compared to questions based on concepts delivered by the traditional lecture method. Results: Student performance on high-stakes examinations after active learning sessions on content and concepts had statistically higher average percentages on the second, third and fourth examinations. The average Diff (p) for the second, third, and fourth examination to the questions being considered for the study were (Diff p= 0.84, 0.83, and 0.92) with a positive moderate correlation for the second examination (r= 0.535) and strong positive correlation for the third and fourth examination (r=0.745 and r=0.856) for their final biochemistry grades. Conclusion: The study shows some positive and significant results that active learning methods are a useful and meaningful way to deliver a curriculum for a competency-based education system, and may be better suited than traditional lectures for providing content and assessing competencies which are necessary to become a complete physician.
Aim:The standardized mode of delivering curriculum across the globe is didactic lectures. Formative and summative assessment methods are routine practices used to assess the students understanding and mastery in content and concepts which is delivered. The formative assessment methods are extremely popular in medical educational training but the data supporting such claims is largely lacking. The aim of this observational study was to determine if frequently provided formative assessment methods like practice quizzes, take home assignments can have any positive impact on student learning strategies and assessment outcomes in examination. Material and Methods: A total of 145 students were included in this study. This study explored the relationship between student performance in various low stakes formative quizzes and high stakes summative examination. Based on the student performances across various formative assessment methods, the students were encouraged to modify or retain the study strategies and the effect of such recommendations were observed over the course of the semester. Results: The data analysis showed positive relationship between the student performance on formative assessments and summative assessment before and after the intervention to study methods and strategies. Students in top, second, third and bottom quartile gained a cumulative average of 72.4%, 61.0%, 56.6% and 48.3% in the formative assessment and an average of 89.3%, 79.8%, 75.0%, and 65.7% on their summative examination which were used as tools for early intervention. Conclusion: Following the early intervention and modifications in study strategies, there was a steady increase in student performance on high stakes examination.
The medical education has been reliant on didactic lectures which are predominantly teacher centered learning method. The competency based medical education was introduced in North America and with this came the paradigm shift in how schools conceptualize curriculum and measure the outcomes to learning. This new and modern approach started a change away from the traditional lecture based and teacher centered curriculum to more student centric by using various tools. The competency-based education is vastly regarded as an outcome-based approach to design, implement and evaluate the curriculum using widely accepted competencies. AACOM recommends seven core competencies with in which you have various indicators which address the student’s performances. The main purpose of this research is to utilize active learning tools to assess the competencies in the first year of medical school which will provide better academic outcome, physician who is knowledgeable and satisfies all the competencies as needed by the Licensure authority. Materials & Methods: The study was conducted at medical school during the first semester of medical school and included 145 students. Various active learning tools like, team-based learning, quizzes, popup quizzes, case discussions were used to assess the competency in biochemistry and genetics course, and they were compared to questions based on concepts delivered by traditional lecture method. Results: The student’s performance on high stake examination after the active learning session on the content and concepts delivered and learnt had a statistically higher average percent point in the second, third and fourth examination. The average Diff (p) for second, third and fourth examination to the questions being considered for the study were (Diff p= 0.84, 0.83 and 0.92) with positive moderate correlation for second examination(r= 0.535) and strong positive correlation for third and fourth examination ( r=0.745 and r=0.856) with their final biochemistry grades. Conclusion: The study does not prove that active learning methods are the best way to deliver curriculum for competency based education system, but there are some positive and significant data that has emerged which does convince that these active learning methods may be better suited for providing and assessing the competencies .
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