Curriculum mapping of dental physiology curriculum: The path towards outcome-based education.

INTRODUCTION: Curriculum mapping provides a clear picture of curriculum content, learning opportunities and assessment methods employed to measure the achievement of learning outcomes with their interrelationships. It facilitates educators and teachers to examine the extent to which the curricular components are linked and hence to find out gaps in the curriculum. The objective of the study was, therefore, to evaluate the physiology curriculum of Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) programme through curriculum mapping. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, mapping of the physiology curriculum of three batches of BDS programme was conducted retrospectively. The components of the curriculum used for mapping were expected learning outcomes, curriculum content, learning opportunities, assessments and learning resources. The data were gathered by reviewing office records. RESULTS: Descriptive analysis of the data revealed reasonable alignment between the curriculum content and questions asked in examinations for all three batches. It was found that all the expected learning outcomes were addressed in the curriculum and assessed in different assessments. Moreover, the study revealed that the physiology curriculum was contributing to majority of the programme outcomes. Nevertheless, the study could identify some gaps in the curriculum, as well. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that majority of the components of the curriculum were linked and contributed to attaining the expected learning outcomes. It also showed that curriculum mapping was feasible and could be used as a tool to evaluate the curriculum.

Learning approaches to physiology of undergraduates in an Indian medical school.

Inventories monitoring students' learning approaches are widely used in medical education research. It is important that teaching interventions adopted in medical schools aim to develop a deep approach to learning in medical students. To study the changes in medical students' approaches to learning before and after the incorporation of clinically orientated physiology teaching (COPT) in the undergraduate physiology curriculum, using the Short Inventory of Approaches to Learning (SIAL). Medical students (n = 223) at Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus) undertake a 9-week learning block of endocrine, reproductive and renal physiology in Year 1. During this period, COPT was incorporated along with regular didactic lectures with the intention of enhancing the use of the deep approach and decreasing the use of the surface and strategic approaches to learning taken by the students. The SIAL, which focuses on the learning approaches of students to physiology, was distributed both before and after COPT. The implementation of COPT seemed to affect the learning approaches of students as measured by the SIAL. After the introduction of COPT, there was a significant increase in the use of the deep learning approach, while the majority of subscales for the surface approach showed decreased use. Nevertheless, use of the strategic approach was found to have increased after COPT. The SIAL was found to be a fairly reliable tool with which to determine the learning approaches of medical students. Clinically orientated physiology teaching was successful in enhancing use of the deep approach to learning and reducing use of the surface approach among undergraduate medical students.