Student-centred learning in Community Medicine: An experience from Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry.

BACKGROUND: Student-centred learning (SCL) places the student at the centre of policies, practices and decision-making in the teaching-learning process. SCL methodology also advocates active involvement of students in the curriculum planning, selection of teaching-learning methods and assessment process. We planned an education innovation project to assess the perception of fifth semester undergraduate medical students towards implementation of an SCL methodology.

METHODS: The study was done among 87 fifth semester undergraduate medical students (batch of 2010-11) in the noncommunicable disease epidemiology section of Community Medicine at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry. The students divided themselves into seven groups and developed the learning objectives, selected teaching-learning methods and assessment process for each session. The facilitators had 3-5 rounds of interaction with each group before the session. Qualitative analysis of feedback collected from students and external faculty after each session was done. The effect of implementing the SCL methodology was assessed by the reaction level of Kirkpatrick's training evaluation model by using a rating scale Results. Of the 87 eligible students, 73 (83.9%) returned the forms for evaluation. All seven groups were able to formulate the learning objectives. Most of the groups had used PowerPoint slides and videos as a teaching-learning tool. Innovative assessment methods such as crosswords and 'chocopati' were used by some groups. In general, the perception of students was favourable towards SCL compared to conventional methods and they felt that this methodology should be adopted more often. Time management and organization of sessions were the main problems encountered by the students. The mean (SD) score for the items 'sessions were useful', 'sessions were enjoyable' and 'sessions improved my knowledge' were 6.2 (1.8), 7.1 (1.8) and 6.3 (1.9), respectively.

CONCLUSION: The majority of students found the sessions on innovative teaching-learning and assessment techniques enjoyable, useful and informative. The sessions showed that students took an active part in curriculum planning, execution and evaluation.