Presentation Pattern of Histology and Illustrations in the Histology Text Books Commonly Used by the Medical Undergraduates of Bangladesh.

The teaching-learning and assessment of cell and histology have gone through remarkable changes in recent times. Histology text books recommended by renowned medical institutions should be good reflectors of these changes and the present trends. Cell and histology is categorically visual in nature. So, their presentation in text books is likely to show rational and meaningful use of illustrations. From July 2007 to June 2008, this descriptive observational study was done to analyze the presentation pattern of illustrations in two histology text books commonly recommended for the medical undergraduates of Bangladesh through: a) estimating the relative weights given to (i.e., proportions of printed area allotted to) illustrations and text; b) determining the frequencies of 12 'form's of illustration-defining each 'form' on the basis of how it has been created and how it looks like and c) determining the frequencies of 3 'categories' of illustration-on the basis of their utility as teaching-learning and assessment tools. Illustrations have been found to be allotted more than half of the printed area in the two books together. Regarding the 'form' of illustrations, 'schematic diagram and three-dimensional diagram' has the highest mean frequency (30.11%) and followed by 'photomicrograph - routine stain - high power' (17.56%). More than 90% of the illustrations could be categorized either as 'practically the best tool for the purpose' (70.21%) or as 'a complementary tool to another tool' (21.05%) for using in teaching-learning and assessment. By incorporating the findings of the present study with the present-day ideas and trends in cell and histology education in the renowned institutions of the world and with the understanding of the science of medical education, guidelines can be formulated for improving the methods of teaching and assessment in cell and histology for the medical undergraduates of Bangladesh.