LECTURE AND ITS
ROLE IN THE PROCESS OF
POSTGRADUATE TRAINING
G.G. BOYKO, V.I. FESENKO
The State Institution «
Department
of Dentistry of the Faculty of Postgraduate Training
The training of a doctor in the postgraduate period
has distinctive features of its own.
At a medical higher education institution, a student is taught the basics
of the subject within the textbook and the curriculum, and everything that is
beyond the curriculum is considered not necessary. In contrast, the pedagogical
process at the faculties and institutions for advanced studies serves as a
basis for the introduction of various scientific achievements into the practice
of public health.
The lecture material in the postgraduate study curriculum, like all other
information, should be distinguished by the continuity with the information
received at the university, which should be done through in-depth analysis and
comparison of curricula and programs: it is necessary to separate the new
information from the basic one, to eliminate unnecessary duplication of
information, which takes up valuable teaching time; it is necessary to arrange a
lecture in such a way as to plan time for the basic information and the new
one. Account should be taken of the level of training of the doctor at the
university with the aim of combining the new information with the revision of
the material covered, of ensuring the generation of training. In fact, new
information will not turn into new knowledge, if it is not linked to the
already existing basic knowledge.
It is known that
an indispensable condition of the educational process is the movement from the
known to the unknown. Revision is therefore justified, but in each individual
case, it is not a formal approach to the selection of the information to be
revised that is needed, but an approach that is deeply thought-out and
conditioned by the overall goal of training and the substance of the new
information.
In the postgraduate improvement studies of doctors, the pedagogical process
has its own distinctive features: it is more complicated and differentiated,
since it concerns not university students but rather mature specialists, often
having extensive experience and being highly qualified. It should therefore be
noted that the pedagogical process must be constantly improved, and it requires
continuous optimization, i. e. everything that
contributes to better mastering of the new knowledge, enlivens teaching of the
subject, makes the learning process more active and attracts to that process
the advance-studies doctors as partners of the teacher must be utilized.
During the postgraduate training of doctors, lecture is a traditional form
of transferring the necessary amount of information on the subject being
studied, and that is based on the current level of achievements in science and
practice, provided the issue under investigation is set as a problem. It is the
lecture that is meant to promote the development of the need for in-depth
independent work, to influence the formation of the doctor's personality.
During a lecture, all three types of students' perception (auditory, visual
and motoric ones) are used.
The main objectives of the lecture are the logical presentation of a
subject, the acquaintance with the main scientific points, the formation of
development areas and, which is very important, the establishment of links with
other related scientific disciplines; the establishment of the link between the
content of the lecture and the independent work of the doctors, their practice;
setting questions so as to develop the need to turn to literary sources, to an
even more profound study of the subject.
The lecture should be designed to develop a creative
thought in doctors, to set a problem and outline the ways to solve it.
When giving a lecture, it is necessary to take into account the fact that
the lecture is a passive form of presenting information, and to some extent, we
have to duplicate the materials of the textbooks, to take into account the
students' fatigue and a decrease in the efficiency of learning. Those factors
should therefore not be discarded. It is necessary to take them into account
and try to make the lecture interesting, to set a problem, to give examples, to
show interesting diagrams and slides, to emphasize educational points, too.
This large, generalized information must also be presented in a short time, be
it a problem-setting lecture, a review or an integral one, and that information
should also contain the indication of the latest achievements of science and
practice.
The lecturer should try to find a personal contact with interns or
advance-studies doctors, should necessarily express his/her personal views on
the methods of examining the patient and modern methods of treatment
periodically repeating the main points in order to facilitate for the listeners
the process of taking notes, and he/she should give as much illustrative
material as possible.
It is also important that the title of the lecture should correspond to the
curriculum and the program of the series of lectures. At the beginning of the
lecture, it is necessary to clearly set its goal and objectives, to determine
what can be brought in or added to the lecture material. It is obligatory to
compile a methodological arrangement of the lecture that includes its plan,
objectives and goal, the amount of time devoted to the illustrative material
and to the recommended literature.
The lecturer should know the subject perfectly, be convinced that he/she
sets out his/her thoughts and arguments logically, not be attached to the plan,
slides or reading the notes. The material should be expounded clearly, in a
simple manner, consistently, accurately and concretely. Certain tempo and
intonation should be chosen to attract the listeners' attention, to capture, to
interest, and to hold the audience until the end of the lecture. In addition to
demonstrating the slides, the lecturer may use a particular patient's case
presentation, an interesting case from the medical history or from his/her own
experience.
When preparing
for the lecture, it is necessary to pay attention to the lecture room's
illumination, whether the air is pure and work places are comfortable in that
room, whether the room is aesthetically pleasing to the audience, all which
contributes to a better perception.
When giving a lecture during postgraduate classes, it is necessary to take
into account, as noted earlier, the composition of the audience (interns,
advance-studies doctors at the level of a polyclinic or an in-patient hospital,
all with different work experience).
The material of the lecture should not be cluttered with unnecessary
details, but should rather cover the main scientific principles and should
contribute to the study of the subject in more detail, thus inducing in the
listeners an interest to a more in-depth study of that subject.
Depending on the objective of the thematic instruction, we give a course of
lectures according to the curriculum: a systematic course is used in the
process of specialization, this course of lectures giving the opportunity to
present all the issues, say, on surgical dentistry in strict continuity and
consistency, viz. according to the thematic instruction program, with each
subsequent lecture being logically connected with the previous one.
For a series of thematic advance-studies lectures, we use selected lectures
to more deeply highlight individual and especially important sections of the subject
in question. We try to coordinate the lectures on a given set of thematic
issues with other forms of academic work, i. e.
practical or seminar classes.
We also involve young teachers in giving individual lectures. In such
cases, the material of the lecture is discussed at the department and
methodology meetings, where we work out a unified approach to the most
important and controversial issues. Under such conditions, the teacher draws up
the entire text of the lecture, so as to make it easier to discuss.
The principles of arranging a lecture course vis-à-vis interns have
their own distinctive features. Interns still have a fairly high level of basic
knowledge in dentistry, so repeating the fundamental material in a lecture is
inappropriate. We try to draw up and give lectures with more of a clinical
focus, to foster clinical thinking, to persuade an intern to work independently
with literature sources. Our experience of working with interns allows us to
see their weak points in the beginning of their clinical activities as doctors,
and to find out difficulties they have to go through. For example, one of the
weak points of a young doctor is the issues of diagnosis, of clinical course of
diseases, and especially those of modern methods of treatment. Lectures for
interns should therefore be arranged in such a way as to be methodologically
focused on addressing those issues. That focus should help set problems before
an intern, which he/she can solve only in the process of self-improvement both
in theoretical and practical sense.
More than 90 percent of the lectures are drawn up on the basis of slides,
where the main points of the subject under instruction are tellingly
highlighted; the plans and diagrams of examination and treatment of patients,
diagrams of surgical interventions, photographs featuring clinical picture of
diseases, radiographs indicating changes in tissues under the conditions of
full-blown pathology are graphically shown. Visual perception gives the
possibility of a better assimilation of the teaching material.
REFERENCES
1.
O.A. Glazunov. The Principles of the Bologna
Process in the Integrated Teaching of Dental Disciplines at the Department of
Dentistry of the Faculty of Postgraduate Training of the Dnipropetrovsk State
Medical Academy / O.A. Glazunov // In
the book «Achievements and Prospects of the Postgraduate Training» dedicated to
the 35th anniversary of the Faculty of Postgraduate Training of the
Dnipropetrovsk State Medical Academy. – 2008. – p.24
2.
M.M. Gordiyuk. The Organization
of the Teaching Process vis-à-vis Interns at the Department of Dentistry
of the Faculty of Postgraduate Training / M.M. Gordiyuk,
G.G. Boyko // Proceedings of the Applied Research
Conference «Theoretical and Clinical Aspects of the Medical and Social
Assessment and Rehabilitation» dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the
Department of Medical and Social Assessment
3.
A.A. Timofeyev.
Independent Work by Students / A.A. Timofeyev, S.V. Vitkovskaya, S.V. Maksimcha //
Modern Dentistry. – 2009. – No. 1. – pp. 143-145
4.
O.V. Gromov.
Information Technology in the Teaching Process: Problems, Development Prospects
(an Invitation to Discussion) / O.V. Gromov, R.A. Kotelevskiy // Modern Dentistry. – 2010. – No. 5.– pp.
108-110
5.
G.G. Boyko. The
Priorities of the Teacher's Work with Interns at the Department of Dentistry of
the Faculty of Postgraduate Training of the Dnipropetrovsk State Medical
Academy