An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Practical in Parasitology for Undergraduate Students Using the Results of Practical Examination / 医学教育

ABSTRACT

We assessed the effectiveness of practical instruction in parasitology for undergraduates at Jichi Medical School by examining grades on a practical examination. Two hundred six second-year medical students in 1997 and 1998 (103 students in each year) were enrolled in this study. The students took written and practical examinations at the end of the program. We found that grades on the practical examination were correlated with grades on the written examination (r=0.5664; p<0.001). The discrimination index ranged from 0.23 to 0.78. The percentage of correctly identified species was significantly higher when students studied live specimens than when they used other methods (p<0.0001 in both 1997 and 1998). The highest rates of correct identification (more than 90%) were for <I>Anisakis</I> species larvae and <I>Enterobius vermicularis</I> eggs in 1997 and for <I>Anisakis</I> species larvae, <I>E. vermicularis</I> eggs, and <I>Anopheles</I> mosquitoes in 1998. Results of neither written nor practical examinations differed significantly between students who chose biology at the entrance examination and those who did not. Our results suggest that undergraduates would gain a better understanding of parasitology by studying live specimens.