TEACHING STRATEGIES

Objectives: To determine preferences and perceptions of medical studentsabout teaching strategies in basic sciences years. Study design: Mixed method study. Placeand Duration: Khawaja Muhammad Safdar Medical College, Sialkot, from March 2014 toJuly, 2014. Methodology: A total of 77 medical students of 3rd year MBBS were selectedthrough non-probability convenient sampling for this study. A questionnaire to know abouttheir preferences and comments about teaching strategies was distributed to the students.A focus group discussion was also carried out to know in depth opinion of students aboutdifferent teaching strategies. Results: Mean age of the medical students was 22.75 ± 1.05years. Twenty one (27.3%) participants were males and 56 (72.7%) females. Out of 77 students,22 preferred interactive lectures; 16, small group discussion; 20 problem based learning, 10preferred demonstration on models. Only 01 students preferred one-way lecture as the bestteaching methodology.More female students (30.3% vs 23.8%) preferred interactive lecturesand more male (28.6% vs 17.8%) students preferred small group discussion as their teachingstrategies. Conclusion: Majority preferred interactive lectures (28.57%) and problem basedlearning (25.98%) as teaching strategies. Aligning our teaching strategies with preferences ofthe medical students will improve learning and academics.