Can Japanese students embrace learner-centered methods for teaching medical interviewing skills? Focus groups

Abstract

Background: Students' perceptions of learner-centered methods for teaching medical interviewing skills have not been fully explored. Aim: To explore Japanese students' perceptions of learner-centered methods for teaching medical interviewing skills such as role play with student-created scenarios, peer-assisted video reviews, and student-led small group debriefing. Methods: We conducted three focus groups with a total of 15 students who participated in the learner-centered seminars on medical interviewing skills at the Nagoya University School of Medicine. The transcripts were analyzed by two authors independently. Keywords and concepts were identified and a thematic framework was developed. Results: Overall, students valued the experience of writing their own scenarios for role play, but some questioned their realism. Many students commented that peer-assisted video reviews provided them with more objective perspectives on their performance. However, some students expressed concerns about competitiveness during the video reviews. While students appreciated teachers' minimum involvement in the group debriefing, some criticized that teachers did not explain the objectives of the seminar clearly. Many students had difficulties in exchanging constructive feedback. Conclusion: We were able to gain new insights into positive and negative perceptions of students about learner-centered methods for teaching medical interviewing skills at one medical school in Japan.

Listen to the outpatient: qualitative explanatory study on medical students’ recognition of outpatients’ narratives in combined ambulatory clerkship and peer role-play

“…Six days are spent in the Department of General Medicine, which offers several educational programs. One of these programs is the ambulatory clerkship with peer role-play, which is part of our program [ 10 , 11 ] (Fig. 2 ).…”

“…Finally, the student “patient” discloses the information actually gathered from the patient during the visit with the attending doctor. To encourage student-centered learning, the facilitator does not take an active part in the discussion and does not interrupt unless the discussion strays from the aim of the session [ 10 ]. At the end of the session, the facilitator takes questions about communication and clinical reasoning, and finally summarizes the session.…”

“…Therefore, it is important to design learning strategies for undergraduate medical education that incorporate patients’ narratives in medical interview training. In 2001, we developed an educational program that combined outpatient encounters and medical interview training using peer role-play [ 10 , 11 ]. In this program, actual narratives from outpatients that students had encountered during their ambulatory clerkship were used as peer role-play scenarios in which the students acted as outpatients.…”

“…This aimed to resolve the “problematic reality” of peer role-play scenarios. In our role-play exercises, we used to use scenarios written by medical students based on their own experience as a patient or a patient’s family member [ 10 ].…”

Investigating how student-centered and teacher-centered teaching paradigms relate to the academic motivation and learning behaviors of secondary school students in China (Explorando las relaciones entre los modelos pedagógicos centrados en el estudiante y centrados en el docente y la motivación académica y conductas de aprendizaje de los estudiantes de secundaria en China)

“…Scholars have intensively criticized the traditional ways of school instruction in China or other East Asian countries/regions (e.g., Japan, Korea, Taiwan) because the traditional approaches in these countries/regions were overly teacher-directed and failed to encourage independency, autonomy and self-directed learning among students (Cheng, 2018;Chen & Yang, 2022;Frambach et al, 2014;Gui & Cheng, 2018;Huang et al, 2019;Jiang, 2021;Li et al, 2021;Saiki et al, 2011). In recent decades, many Chinese educators and school administrators have made efforts to reform school education by propelling a major shift from teacher-centred classroom instruction to student-centred instruction (Chang, 2017;Chen & Sun, 2017;Dong et al, 2019;Pang et al, 2021;Yan, 2019;Zhang et al, 2017;Zhu, 2021;Zhu & Zen, 2017).…”