Perception of Second-Year Undergraduate Medical Students on Seminar as a Teaching-Learning Method

Abstract

Objectives: The present study was carried out to assess the perception of 2nd-year medical students on seminar as a teaching-learning method. Methods: This was a questionnaire based and cross-sectional study, conducted in pharmacology department on 2nd-year undergraduate students at a medical college in South India. The study was conducted for a period of 1 month to assess student’s perception of seminars in the teaching learning process. The questionnaire was pre-designed, pre-validated, and self-administered about usefulness of seminar in teaching-learning methods. The feedback was obtained from students immediately after the seminar and the responses received were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Of total 88 students, 82 students were of the opinion that seminars help in better interaction with both teachers and friends. About 97.7% of the students said that seminar is good and informative tool for learning. Eighty-one students (92%) preferred drugs acting on gastrointestinal tract as topic for seminar, followed by drugs acting on blood and blood formation (84%). When opinion on whether the seminar is helpful for theory topics or practical or both, 79.5% of the students said that seminar will more useful for theory topics than practical topics (5.6%). Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that the most of the students found that seminars are more informative than didactic lectures. Seminar should be considered as a modern teaching-learning tool, as it analyzes all the domains of teaching (cognitive, psychomotor skills, and affective). Seminar can definitely be implemented as a modern teaching learning method on regular basis for higher education like medical education.