A horizon of medical education research approach in 21st century

Abstract

The author is a reviewer of various peer reviewed journals and during the review of the medical education research manuscript was observed that many novice of the field of medical education research do not follow the scientific steps of the medical education research. Therefore, this paper is aimed to reflect the essence of medical education research approach and to help the novice medical education research investigators to design the project in scientific approach. An intensive review is made on the available printed and online resources. The resources were mainly on the social science and medical education research methodologies. Medical education research steps must follow the various steps of social science research methodology. Due to various reasons case study methodology became popular approach in medical education. The case study comprises of interview survey, questionnaire survey, participant observation and documentary analysis. To overcome the inherent weakness of the non-experimental subjective research, triangulation methodology is being used in recent years. Case study approach is the best way to explore the research issues of the medical education. The triangulation methodology must be applied to overcome the inherent subjectivity of the research approach. This paper may be used as a guide to design the various steps of case study research approach in medical education.

Keywords

• Case-study
• Interview
• Questionnaire survey
• Participant observation
• Documentary analysis
• Triangulation