Medical students are from Mars - business and psychology students are from Venus - University teachers are from Pluto?

Abstract

This study explores further the reasons given by the first year medical students in comparison with first year business and first year psychology students for their selection of lectures, student role play, and student presentations as their least preferred teaching method. The reasons were originally given in a questionnaire exploring student expectations of university teaching completed by 195 medical, 128 business and 72 psychology students in their first week at university (Sander et al, 2000). The analysis reported here suggests that whilst students irrespective of course gave similar reasons for not liking lectures, there were subtle differences between medical students and business and psychology students in the reasons they gave for not liking student role play and student presentations. These differences suggest that many first year medical students can be suspicious of the value of student centred learning methods. Teachers hoping to use these methods should acknowledge student suspicion and work to help students see the value of these techniques to encourage their full participation.

Communicating with first year medical students to improve Communication Skills teaching in The University of the West Indies

“…This will provide data that can be discussed by staff with the knowledge that the information is provided by the students they teach and can be the beginning of the involvement of students in the learning process. 13 …”

“…The finding of these three methods as least preferred methods corresponds with findings from a secondary analysis of UK USET study. 13 It will require further research to establish exactly why role play and student presentations are not liked by the Caribbean students.…”

“…[12][13] In the USET study 12 the researchers found that UK first year students, irrespective of course followed, expected to be taught by formal lecture where a lecturer delivered the information and students took notes. The students however if given a choice would have preferred to be taught by a method where information was provided and then student discussion was involved.…”

Perceptions of medical students in India about the use of role-play as a teaching-learning method in physiology

“…Stevenson & Saunder however found that role-play and student presentation are the least preferred teaching method by 32% of new medical students 8 . In another study, 19.6% of first year Caribbean medical students chose student role-play as their least preferred communication teaching style 9 .…”

Increasing Student Numbers: Diminishing Tutor Insight?

“…However, changing what is on offer to accord with student expectations does not mean that students always have to be given what they want. For instance, students find presentations daunting Stevenson and Sander, 2002) but they may be beneficial (Sander, Sanders and Stevenson, 2002). Stevenson et al (1996), in a piece of action research, showed that more effective tutorials could be created for students on a distance learning degree course by gathering survey information about the students' teaching and learning preferences.…”