Pitfalls of currently practiced approach for teaching medical students: opinions & options

Introduction: During a didactic lecture, information is given to the students by the teacher, where students are passive listeners and the teacher is the narrator. Interaction between the students and the teacher, though intended, is not always possible because of several reasons. Other formats for teaching (small group discussions, seminars by students etc.) have been utilized but in a limited way, particularly in India. In many medical institutes, students are expected to attend several lectures and there is no scheduled respite between lectures. This study has been done to understand the shortcomings of the current format and duration of lecture from the point of view of students. Method: Feedback was obtained from first year MBBS students under anonymity and was analyzed. There were 94 responses on the format of lectures and 98 for duration of lecture. Their responses were analyzed and the percentage of response for each choice was noted. Results: 57.14% students were of the opinion that didactic lectures must be supplemented with small group discussions and 46.81 % of students feel that the optimum duration of a lecture should be between 30 to 45 minutes. Discussion: Our study shows that majority of the students are of the opinion that duration of lecture should not be more than 45 minutes and more focus should be on supplementation of didactic lectures with small group discussion. Incorporating the students view point while forming educational policies may improve their performance to great extent. Key words: Didactic lectures, Educational policy, Educational program planning, Medical students, Performance improvement