The effect of group discussion on learning of anatomy for midwifery students and student's attitude toward it

Lecture is the most commonly-used teaching method, but it is not associated with active participation of learners. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of group discussion and lecture teaching methods on the performance of students in final cumulative exam of anatomy course and determining the attitude of the learners toward them. This semi-experimental study was done on the midwifery students of Lorestan University of Medical Sciences in 2009-2010. The course materials were divided into two comparable sections. These two sections were taught by lecture or group discussion. After completion of the course, the effect of the teaching method on the performance of the students was evaluated by comparing their grades in cumulative assessment of these two sections. Attitude of students toward these two methods was also assessed by a valid and reliable researcher-made questionnaire which contained some questions with five-level likert scale. The mean score of cumulative or final assessment of participants in the course materials taught by lecturing was 15.2±2.3 and of those taught by group discussion was 15.7±2.5 which were not statistically significant. The mean satisfaction rate of the participants toward lecture method was 58.9% and toward group discussion method was 58.5% which were also not statistically significant. There was not any significant difference between lecture and group discussion when considering their effect on the student's performance in final assessment and attitude of students toward them. However, this claim should be approved by future studies.