Future of Medical Education Journal
Volume:13 Issue: 3, Sep 2023

Education through peer-teachers is one of the teaching-learning methods that is being increasingly used in various studies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of peer-teachers in teaching physiology on learning and satisfaction of medical students.

This semi-experimental study was conducted on medical students of the basic sciences in Mashhad Medical School in 2021-2022. Students were divided into two groups: conventional and Peer teaching methods. The average score of the quizzes at the beginning and end of each session, final exam score, and rate of information retention were compared between the two groups. A survey was also conducted among students to assess their satisfaction.

The mean scores of the quizzes in the peer-teaching group were significantly higher than the control group (p<0.05), but there was no significant difference between the two groups in the final exam score. In the PT group, the greatest improvement in grades was in students with GPA above 17 compared to students with GPA between 14 and 17 and GPA less than 14, but in the control group, there was no significant difference between students with different GPAs. Examining the rate of data retention showed that the students in the peer-teaching group had a higher score than the control group. 83% of students were highly satisfied with this teaching method.

The use of peer-teaching method improved motivation among medical students and increase their learning process, in addition to creating satisfaction among them.

This study aimed to assess the impact of early clinical exposure and near-peer assisted learning combination on recognition of clinical aspects of basic sciences for preclinical medical students.

In this translational (efficiency type) study, 59 Iranian medical students were selected to participate in clinical courses. An intern was in charge of mentoring to elaborate clinical aspects of basic sciences. During the clinical course, students faced several cases related to presented materials in order to perceive the role of previously learned topics in basic sciences courses. Finally, the students filled a validated and reliable questionnaire, which was designed to assess the level of satisfaction and effect of the program on students' attitude toward clinical usage of basic science courses. 

Participants in their feedback gave an overall rating of the satisfaction of program as high to very high. A majority (89%, n=42) of students stated that participating in this workshop results in increased motivation for studying and 97% (n=46) declared that these types of programs must be considered in the medical education curriculum. 

This study showed that a near-peer mentor can effectively accomplish the objectives of this project because of precedent dealing with similar issues. Designing a teaching strategy to fill the gap between the parts of the curriculum was the most prominent achievement of this study.

A high-quality Ph.D. course requires frequent assessment and identification of deficiencies and limitations. The midwifery Ph.D. course started in 2016 in Iran and since no evaluation has been performed on this program, the present study aimed to evaluate the Iranian midwifery Ph.D. course based on the CIPP model.

This descriptive-evaluative research was conducted based on the CIPP model in 2021 in the schools of nursing and midwifery of Tabriz and Ahvaz Universities of medical sciences, Iran. The statistical population included the faculty members of the midwifery Ph.D. program (9 individuals) and midwifery Ph.D. graduates and students (21 individuals). The data collection tools comprised CIPP-based questionnaires exclusively for faculty members and students. Descriptive statistics were employed for data analysis.

Most students (81%) and faculty members (77.8%) reported an appropriate general evaluation of the midwifery Ph.D. curriculum. Most faculty members (77.8%) and students (90.8%) reported the indicators of the midwifery Ph.D. curriculum as appropriate in terms of context. More than three forth of faculty members (77.8%) and more than half of the students (57.1%) reported this curriculum as appropriate regarding input. This program was also reported to be appropriate according to 52.4% of students and 66.7% of faculty members in terms of process. Furthermore, a total of 66.7% of participants in both groups reported an appropriate status in terms of output.

Midwifery Ph.D. curriculum was reported as an appropriate program. Also, students of this discipline requested greater stress on clinical upskilling for midwifery Ph.D.

Internet-based e-learning has become one of the dominant approaches in educational systems. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of the blended learning approach compared with the conventional method in dental education (oral diagnosis course) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The present experimental study was conducted in 2020. A total of 76 (n=76) fourth-year general dentistry students from the school of dentistry of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences (AJUMS) participated in the study. All students had chosen the Oral Diseases and Diagnosis course (Practical course 1). The students were divided into two equal groups (group A, Group B, n=38) according to age, sex and grade point average. Teaching in Group A was conducted traditionally in a physical learning environment. Students in Group B received theoretical topics in the form of offline-online education and practiced clinical skills (like group A) in the clinical settings. The posttest intervention was conducted immediately and one month after the educational program. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 26.

The mean test score of students (immediately and one month after the educational program) via the traditional instruction method was lower than the blended instructional method (p<0.001). The mean score of students in both groups in the one month follow up exam decreased significantly compared with the immediate posttest exam (p<0.01).

Blended learning with the educational benefits of online learning and face-to-face learning has the greatest impact on the immediate and long-term academic achievement compared to traditional learning.

Financing and developing the infrastructures of health and education services have been among the basic issues in health care management. The present study aimed to identify management solutions in attracting public-private partnership (PPP) in the construction, management, and development of healthcare centers and the expansion of educational spaces with the aim of increasing education quality.

The study exploited a Delphi technique to identify management solutions. The Delphi panel included 26 individuals, such as faculty members, heads of departments, directors of healthcare centers, and other experts. The inclusion criteria were a minimum academic degree of BSc and having relevant education and experience. In addition, the subjects had to have at least a valid scientific article, experience in conducting relevant scientific and executive studies, and membership in a relevant working group. The panel members were selected by purposive sampling, and the Delphi technique was conducted in three stages.

The management solutions had seven dimensions, including finance-investment, legal, technical-engineering, managerial, governance-political, structural-procedural, and technology-skill. Each dimension had a number of components, the total number of which was reported at 76.

It seems necessary to focus on the dimensions and components of management solutions with the aim of increasing education quality. In this regard, it is vital to pay attention to partnership purchasing of services and products before concluding a PPP contract, guaranteeing perspective in PPP projects, support of PPP projects by insurance companies and banks, legal supports and incentives, stability in policies and instructions, and capacity building in the private sector to participate in PPP projects.

This research aimed to identify the challenges of the regulations for the promotion of faculty members in Iranian universities of medical sciences.

This qualitative research was conducted using the meta-synthesis method and organized in two steps. In the first step, a systematic review method has been used. Based on this, the specialized keywords of the research were searched in international authoritative databases; Science Direct, Springer, Wiley Online Library, PubMed, ERIC, Sage Journals, Emerald, and authoritative national databases; Magiran, Noormags, SID, portals of the Islamic Parliament Research Center, and other national portals, and this search was done during some years (1388-1401) and (2010-2021). In this search, there were 39 studies among which 17 studies were selected based on the PRISMA evaluation form. In the second step, the thematic analysis method of Wolcott (2008) was used.

In the results, three primary subcategories including structural weakness, content weakness, and executive weakness were identified as the challenges of the regulations for the promotion of faculty members. These factors were categorized in the form of eight secondary subcategories, including weakness in design, weakness in supervision, weakness in the educational sector, weakness in the research sector, weakness in the cultural sector, weakness in implementation at the university level, weakness in implementation at the extra-university level, and weakness in the implementation of regulations.

The results of the research can help policymakers and decision-makers in medical sciences universities to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of research and educational achievements by optimizing the policies of the bylaws to promote faculty members.

Stress is an inevitable and important part of being a medical student. Present study explores perceived stress among undergraduate medical students and the correlation of stress with learning strategies and academic performance.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at Medical College Kolkata, India. The target population was undergraduate medical students from phase II and III. Participants’ learning strategies was measured using the modified Approaches to Learning Medicine (mALM) questionnaire. The stress level of the students was determined by Perceived stress Scale (PSS 10). Academic performance was measured in terms of percentages scored in the last MBBS examination. Data were analysed using SPSS version 21. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for categorical variables and measures of central tendency and dispersion was calculated for continuous variables. Differences of mean were tested by independent samples t-test. Correlation was tested by Pearson correlation test.

There were 136 students enrolled in the study; and 129 (94.8%) students scored above 60% in their last MBBS examination. Mean PSS score of the participants was 19.4± 4.17. One hundred and twenty-three (90.4%) students were found to have moderate stress. Deep learning approach was significantly more for MBBS Phase III students (p=0.003). However, perceived stress had no significant correlation with either learning strategy (p=0.916) or academic performance of students (p=0.309).

Perceived stress was found to be high among undergraduate medical students in the present study. However, any particular learning style or academic performance was not found to be associated with stress.

Knowledge of students’ learning styles can facilitate changing teaching methods according to their learning styles and subsequently improve their educational performance. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the learning styles of dental students at Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in 2020 on 184 dental students at Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. The dental students at the 5th semester and higher academic levels were selected through the census method, and the data were collected using the VARK Learning Styles Self-Assessment Questionnaire. This is a standard 16-item multiple-choice assessment that identifies preferred learning styles: visual (V), auditory (A), reading/writing (R), and kinesthetic (K). The collected data were analyzed with SPSS V.24  and using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, etc.) and inferential statistics (independent samples t-test).

184 students including 94 men (51%) and 90 women (49%) with an average age of 22.7 years participated in this study. The results showed that the students at Sari Dental School follow different learning styles, and the aural style (37.5%) was the most frequently preferred style for them. However, a significant difference was found between male and female students in terms of their preferred learning styles (p=0.608).

Improving the quality of education requires taking learning styles in the teaching profession and educational tools into account. Teachers’ knowledge of the types of learning styles and choosing the style that is most consistent with students’ learning styles can significantly improve the efficiency of educational courses.

The digital teaching is quite different from the traditional in-person classroom teaching. The purpose of the thematic review was to identify the development and future prospects of digital teaching with reference to medical and dental teachers as well as to identify any published competency frameworks in this regard.

The authors conducted a thematic review of the relevant literature published between1994-2022. The databases searched included PubMed, Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), and Google Scholar. Manual search was also carried out so as not to miss any relevant published literature.

The initial search yielded 31,389 publications. At the search phase, the identification of publications was based on the titles of the publications. At the screening phase, 31,322 records were excluded because of their being irrelevant or duplicated. The remaining 67 articles were further screened by reading the abstracts. Out of these 67 publications, 24 were excluded because of being non-relevant. At the appraisal phase, 43 publications were assessed for eligibility. At final synthesis phase of the literature review, 26 publications were included.

The available published literature on digital teaching was focused predominantly on primary and secondary school students. The digital competency frameworks were designed for the transfer of the knowledge component and dealt mostly with children. These frameworks did not meet the specific requirements of medical teachers. The latter have to transfer not only the knowledge domain, but also teach clinical skills and professional attitudes to their adult learners. Hence, they need a framework which should provide for these added competencies and real-life, patient-oriented clinical scenarios.

Micro learning is the acquisition of knowledge from short, focused modules of information generally involving a single learning objective (1). This type of learning, emphasizing the limitation of the learners working memory, provides the learner with educational content in the form of audio, text, image, video, animation and multimedia in small pieces. From the perspective of the cognitive approach, by segmenting the information, the cognitive load of the learners working memory is reduced and learning is facilitated for him (2). In order words, micro learning can be considered as one of the important strategies for designing educational messages that can make the teaching learning process more effective. Micro learning can incorporate numerous learning formats and can be suited to any of the learning domains: cognitive, affective and psychomotor (1). This is despite the fact that the affective domain is considered a neglected aspect of higher education; But by using this learning method, the range of different goals can be used