Analysis of Forensic Medicine questions in the undergraduate medical curriculum of the University of Peradeniya , Sri Lanka

Abstract

Introduction Forensic Medicine is a subject in the undergraduate medical curriculum in Sri Lanka. Several evaluations comprising of essay and structured essay types of questions are used for the evaluation of students. Since recent trends in medical education stresses the importance of promoting higher order thinking, such as analyzing and evaluating, rather than just remembering facts it was decided to conduct a study with a view to determining the cognitive level of the essay and structured essay type of questions in Forensic Medicine Method Essay and structured essay types of questions of the first four years of the MBBS program from the year 2006 to 2012 were categorized according to the Bloom’s taxonomy. Results A majority of questions were knowledge based while a considerable number were of the comprehension and application types. The proportion of questions of the synthesis and analysis were less while there was a moderate number of the evaluation type of questions. Observations made between the years revealed that there was a tendency for a decrease in the proportion of knowledge-based questions from the 1st year to the 4th years with an increase in the proportion of synthesis type of questions. Conclusion A majority of questions in Forensic medicine require lower cognitive abilities. However, there is a tendency towards questions, which require higher cognitive abilities with progression in to the senior years of the medical course.

Keywords

• Forensic Medicine questions
• Medical curriculum
• Bloom’s taxonomy