An uphill battle: students as barriers to innovation

Abstract

Background: With the introduction of a hybrid didactic/Problem-based learning curriculum for the University of Hong Kong medical programme, there has been a significant reduction in the number of timetabled didactic whole class sessions (WCS), but these have not been eliminated completely because students still request and value lecture-style WCS sessions. However, these are the antithesis of student-driven learning. This forced a re-think by the presenter about how to optimize the use of limited class time for traditional didactic activities. Intervention: A new approach in the form of a simple modification to WCS was developed and implemented for one academic year. This consisted of all “lecture” material being placed on the web one week before the scheduled class and students being told to read the material prior to the class session. After the class, the tutor would answer any questions be email and broadcast answers to all students, posting these as an FAQ page attached to the lecture which remained available to students. When the WCS occurred, instead of the teacher duplicating the material by repeating the lecture during the one hour time slot, students were instead given a 15 minute summary, followed by a student-lead question and answer session. This way the teacher clarifies any misconceptions or difficulties experienced with the topic by the students, and elaborates only those points unclear to students, thus making better use of the limited time and making the process more student-driven. Results: However, students’ ratings of these WCSs revealed highly polarized preferences. While around 20-25% of students rated these new sessions as highly satisfactory, the majority gave severely curtailed ratings. The use of these ratings to value teachers meant that significant pressure to return to the traditional didactic approach forced a cancellation of this new method. In the subsequent academic year, lectures having identical content to those of the previous year were given in the traditional format, and ratings were markedly improved, indicating the style rather than content was disliked. Discussion & implications: The preference for passive lectures was reflected in the fact that a majority of students refused, despite adequate briefing, to read the web-based material beforehand, and hence were not able to make use of this new and more efficient approach. A second aspect of the problem is an over-simplistic rating system used to assess student feedback. These, and related issues will be discussed in greater detail along with the implications for introducing innovative teaching environments when student-centered learning.