ABSTRACT
The increasing international mobility of medical students has inspired the search for an international assessment format. As one step along this line, kinetics of knowledge acquisition and final cognitive levels of students were compared among one Dutch, one German and four Italian medical faculties. For this comparison, the Maastricht Progress Test (MPT) was used. For four out of the six participating faculties, it was possible to compare the level of knowledge of sixth-year students. These data showed no significant differences on the test as a whole. On the other hand, as judged from cross-sectional data on students from all study years, the kinetics of knowledge acquisition showed different trends. In one school applying problem-based learning, acquisition of knowledge by students occurred almost linearly. In another school, over the first 2 years, acquisition of knowledge occurred only in the basic sciences but not in clinical or public health/behavioural sciences. In two other schools over that same period, students seemed to gain no knowledge at all. In some faculties, a marked boost in knowledge was noted with third- or fourth-year students. These findings may be explained by peculiarities of the respective curricula, selection of students during their studies, and national or local assessment procedures. It is preliminarily concluded that the different educational approaches and assessment systems in medical education in Europe seem to have only limited influence on the final level of knowledge of the graduates. On the other hand, these differences may influence the kinetics of knowledge acquisition, especially in distinct domains like basic or clinical sciences. Therefore, the MPT may not be suitabe to solve the problem of assessment of individual international exchange students, but it may be helpful in identifying corresponding cognitive levels on, for example, basic sciences for students in different curricula.
Subject(s)
Cognition , Students, Medical/psychology , Clinical Competence , Curriculum , Humans , International Educational Exchange , Netherlands , School Admission CriteriaABSTRACT
In May 1994, the regional chamber of physicians of Westfalia/Lippe, Germany, introduced their qualifying course in family medicine with a new didactic approach: It changed from a more traditional lecture-based style to the emphasis of problem-based learning. The decision to do this was mainly driven by two reasons: firstly, the common experience of a declining attendance during regular whole day lectures and, secondly, the goal to implement regional quality-seminars following the course. In addition, the federal chamber of physicians published a guidebook with recommendations favoring a more problem-based approach to family medicine in order to implement changes. Although there is still much hesitance in Germany towards the implementation of problem-based learning, we think that this approach cannot only facilitate factual learning but also stimulates other important goals of medical education. Because of time restrictions, it was not possible to assess the outcome. However, participants valued their experience relatively high in a process-evaluation conducted during and after the course.
Subject(s)
Education, Medical, Continuing , Family Practice/education , Problem-Based Learning , Germany , Humans , Management Quality Circles , Program EvaluationABSTRACT
In 1992 a problem-based curriculum was introduced into the Medical Faculty of the University of Witten/Herdecke (UWH). First experiences with this approach indicate that--for several reasons discussed--community related health issues have not been sufficiently addressed. Therefore, it is recommended to give students access to field experiences in community health. At the UWH this is accomplished by a community-related practicum which connects students with a variety of community health services. A parallel course discusses students' experiences in a problem based manner and population related studies are developed.
