Students’ Perception of Effective Teaching Practices in a Medical School

It is often portrayed in literature and academicsettings that effective teaching is the cornerstone of student learningenvironment in large classes; but the characteristics of effectiveteaching is rather mysterious. To delvemore into this aspect, a study was undertaken at the Melaka Manipal MedicalCollege, Manipal University, Manipal, India, where, student perceptions ofeffective teaching practices were analysed to derive certain principles whichcould contribute to teaching effectively. Medical students in first year,second year and clinical batches (n= 451) were enrolled. The study was done inthree phases. In the first Phase of the study, data was gathered from 128students of a batch, individually, about the core qualities of effectiveteaching during a lecture. In the second Phase, theclass of 198 students was divided into small groups of 5 students each, workedtogether, discussed about effective teaching practices and then listed fivequalities that are required to qualify for effective teaching. In the third Phase, based on the responses ofphase 1 and 2, a questionnaire was prepared. The questionnaire was peervalidated and administered to 125 students. The student responses of the phase 1 and phase 2 ofthe study clearly fell under the following five themes which include a. Clarity and easy understanding of thesubject b. Interactivity in the classroom c. Motivation factor d. Making topicsfun to learn e. Dedication and patience exhibited by the teacher. Majority ofthe students perceived that a teacher who gave clear explanation, simplifiedthe subject for easy understanding; and made the topic fun to learn, veryeffective. The study showed some of the good qualities of teaching which couldbe used by medical teachers to improve upon their teaching methodology, andbring out the best teaching practices to create an effective learningenvironment.