فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

BACKGROUND: The curriculum of pathology is conventionally “taught” in a series of didactic lectures,which promotes learning by rote. In this study, case-based learning (CBL) was introduced to assessits effect on higher order cognition and problem-solving skills in undergraduate medical students.SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The prescribed syllabus of hepatobiliary system was delivered to theundergraduate medical students of the fourth semester by conventional didactic lectures. A pretest,which contained questions designed to test both analysis and recall, was administered, followedby CBL sessions, in the presence of a facilitator, encouraging active discussion among students.Students were then assessed using a similar posttest. The perceptions of the students and the facultywere gathered by means of feedback questionnaires. The scores obtained by the students in thepre- and post-test were compared by paired t-test.RESULTS: Eighty-one students participated in CBL sessions, with 95.06% expressing a desire formore such sessions, preferably in all the topics. The faculty members also felt that CBL would bebenefi cial for the students but opined that it should be restricted to some topics. CBL was foundto cause a highly signifi cant (P < 0.0001) improvement in the students’ higher levels of cognition,whereas the lower orders of cognition remained unaffected (P = 0.2048).CONCLUSIONS: CBL promotes active learning and helps in the development of critical thinking andanalysis in undergraduate medical students. Although it is resource-intensive, an attempt should bemade to incorporate it along with lectures in clinically important topics.