Learning Styles in Medical School / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to investigate the learning styles of students at Kyungpook National University(KNU) School of Medicine and to assess its implications on teaching-learning methods in medical school. METHODS: 571 students in all years of medical school were invited to complete a questionnaire via online. For this study, Felder's Index of Learning Styles(ILS) was used, which included 49 items. Felder's ILS measures the learner's relative preference for each of the five dichotomous learning style dimensions. RESULTS: 242(42.3%) students completed the questionnaire. More than 80% preferred sensitive information and more than 60% preferentially took in visual information. Both males and females preferred sensing and visual learning materials. On average, The students at KNU school of Medicine were reflective, sensing, visual, global and inductive. CONCLUSION: From these results, we suggested some effective methods of teaching-learning based on the students' preferences and some perspectives for future works.

The Achievement of Medical Students Admitted after Baccalaureate Level / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: Kyungpook National University School of Medicine initiated a pilot project to admit small number of qualified students who received BS degree or above in the field of sciences in 1996. This study was conducted to evaluate effectiveness of the pilot project. METHODS: Students' academic grades, outcome of their opinion surveys on adaptability to the school life, difficulties and problems from the classes of 1996 to 2001 were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 57 students were admitted to this program over the past 7-year period, 54.8% of them from natural science major and 36.8% from engineering. Students admitted with BS degree were performing above average in the class by % rank. There was no significant difference in academic performance between the natural science and the engineering major. Of 20 graduated, only one took career in basic medical science (physiology). The students thought undergraduate education was helpful in maturing personal characters than in knowledge or skill attainment. CONCLUSION: The achievement of medical students admitted after baccalaureate level was comparable to that of students with two years of premedical education.

The Implementation of Problem-based Learning in Kyungpook National University School of Medicine and its Evaluation / 한국의학교육

The effectiveness of Problem-based Learning(PBL) in medical education has already been acclaimed widely. Representatives of the curriculum committee at Kyungpook National University School of Medicine paid a visit to McMaster University School of Medicine in Canada in May, 1994 in order to learn mechanics and effectiveness of PBL in its medical education and they were impressed by the efficacy of PBL. Soon after that the school launched a pilot PBL tutorial for two years from 1994 through 1996(4-semester) as a non-credit course for senior, junior and sophomore in medical school during one semester each, to introduce PBL to faculty members and students as well. After the pilot, opinion survey on PBL from both faculty and students revealed affirmative for PBL from 55.1% of seniors, 61.4% of juniors and 83.9% of faculty members. The faculty body at medical school was then encouraged by the pilot experience and decided to include the PBL as the part of medical education reform. During the fall semester in 1998, the senior at pre-medical course was given PBL experience to prepare for implementation of PBL at school of medicine. The PBL was implemented as an essential 2-credit-hour course in each semester commencing in 1999 to the freshmen class throughout the year; it was extended to the sophomore in 2000 and to the junior in 2001. Although there had been initial excitements of over expectations, confusion, and disappointments from faculty members and students, majority opinion of both parties on continuation of PBL was positive. The issues to be settled are preparation of study cases, students learning resources, and method of evaluating students' performance. The PBL was started as an essential course in medical school in 1999 after 4 years of preparation and on the basis of our interim evaluations the following conclusions were made: we have reached the following consensus that students seem to follow the objectives of PBL and new PBL tutorial has well been accepted by students; and enhancing the program by correcting currently known weaknesses, the PBL tutorials could further be expanded to be a major modality of teaching in our medical school.

New Curriculum at Kyungpook National University School of Medicine / 한국의학교육

The curriculum reform was undertaken at Kyungpook National University School of Medicine (KNUSM) to meet new educational objectives in order to cope with a rapid societal changes anticipated occurring in 21st century. The KNUSM Curriculum Development Committee was charged to formulate a new curriculum, which consisted of enhancement of patient-centered care based clerkship, integrated courses based on organ systems, problem-based learning, and additional teaching on social medicine, medical informatics and biomedical engineering. The philosophy of this curricular reform has been to modify methods of teaching medical students toward self-directed learning and student-centered. This whole concept was a drastic departure from the traditional lecturing. In the new curriculum, total of 180 credit courses, 4395 hours to graduate medical school were reduced to 170 credit courses, 4250 hours. As a part of the social medicine course, a 2 credit-hour course on patient-doctor relationship was taught and two credit-hour PBL tutorials were added to freshman, sophomore and junior years. In order to carry out this education reform, three new departments were inaugurated such as Biomedical Engineering, Medical Informatics and Medical Education. The school facility has also been improved during this preparatory period. The new curriculum has been implemented in 1999 academic year after approximately 4 years of preparatory period and annual faculty workshops have been held to monitor the progress of the reform and improve courses by evaluating impact of the change on both faculty members and students as well. The interim evaluation revealed several issues remained to be resolved. In conclusion, the acceptance of this reform was excellent from both faculty members and students although there have been continuous problem solving and adjustments necessary. The real assessment of the outcome of the reform requires many years to come and there has to be continuous monitoring of the progress and adjustment of curriculum are the pivotal of a success of the sort of education reform.