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The McMaster philosophy: a student's perspective on implementation
Author(s) -
OLSON J. O.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
medical education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.776
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1365-2923
pISSN - 0308-0110
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2923.1987.tb00366.x
Subject(s) - tutor , grading (engineering) , medical education , unit (ring theory) , perspective (graphical) , peer tutor , psychology , mathematics education , medicine , pedagogy , computer science , engineering , civil engineering , artificial intelligence
Summary. The author visited McMaster Medical School as a fourth‐year medical student in 1984 and took part in a 12‐week unit 3 course. The present investigation on implementation of the educational principles of the MD programme was performed as an elective. A sample of 30 students out of 100 in unit 3 all completed a questionnaire. Only 5 of 18 student groups used the ‘cold’, i.e. unprepared, approach to problem‐solving during tutorials and 15 of 30 practised self‐learning related to the last problem. The others spent most time on general reading. From unit 1 to unit 3 a declining number of groups used peer evaluation (<50%) and evaluation of groups (>50%). The students felt that the performance of tutors should be improved. Most students attended lectures. It is suggested that tutor and group function may benefit from releasing the tutor from grading students. Despite its implementation problems, the author found the McMaster approach to education more beneficial than that of his own traditional school.