Assessment of a Group Activity Based Educational Method to Teach Research Methodology to Undergraduate Medical Students of a Rural Medical College in Gujarat, India

Abstract

Context: Early undergraduate exposure to research helps in producing physicians who are better equipped to meet their professional needs especially the analytical skills. Aim: To assess the effectiveness and acceptability of small group method in teaching research methodology. Setting: Sixth semester medical undergraduates (III MBBSpart1) of a self-financed rural medical college. Materials and Methods: The workshop was of two full days duration consisting of daily two sessions by faculty for 30 minutes, followed by group activity of about four hours and presentation by students at the end of the day. A simple 8 steps approach was used. These steps are Identify a Problem, Refine the Problem, Determine a Solution, Frame the Question, Develop a Protocol, Take Action, Write the Report and Share your Experience. A Pre-test and post-test assessment was carried out using a questionnaire followed by anonymous feedback at the end of the workshop. The responses were evaluated by blinded evaluator. Results: There were 95 (94.8%) valid responses out of the 99 students, who attended the workshop. The mean Pre-test and post-test scores were 4.21 and 10.37 respectively and the differences were found to be significant using Wilcoxon Sign Rank test (p<0.001). The median feedback score regarding relevance, skill learning, quality of facilitation, gain in knowledge was four and that of experience of group learning was 5 on a Likert scale of 1-5.There were no significant differences between male and female students in terms of Pre-test, post-test scores and overall gain in scores. Conclusion: Participatory research methodology workshop can play a significant role in teaching research to undergraduate students in an interesting manner. However, the long term effect of such workshops needs to be evaluated.

Keywords

• medical education
• participatory learning
• problem solving for better health
• small group teaching
• undergraduate research training