Zholdybayeva
A.A., Dakenova K.T., Ahmad N.S.
Kazakh national medical
university, Kazakhstan
The analysis of methods of teaching and assessment in kazakh national medical university according to the results of winter session 2012-2013
Abstract
In the article we analyze
methods of teaching and assessment in the departments of KazNMU named after Asfendiyarov
according to the results of winter session of the 2012-2013 school year. We
have developed an action plan for improving the quality of educational process
on the basis of the obtained results.
Key words:
Education, medical school, students, examination, questionaries
I. The purpose of the report
1. To analyze methods of
teaching and assessment in the departments according to
the results of winter session of the 2012-2013 school year.
2. To develop an action plan for improving the
quality of educational process on the basis of the obtained results.
Studying
the results of session on the first course has shown problems of the
“Chemistry” discipline.
The
department explains this as a fact that during the abovementioned school year:
Students
have had very low school training in chemistry. Teachers of the faculty had
conducted tests for initial knowledgebase on the subject to students of all
groups in the very first lesson, and
the results of that test had shown that many of students had a lack of basic
concepts of chemistry (there is an analysis of the results of that testing).
Despite
of difficulty of the discipline and willingness to provide an advisory support
on all issues, there had been noted the reluctance of students to attend not
only the current, but also the pre-exam counseling.
The
following measures are being taken by the Department of Chemistry for improving
the academic performance in the reporting year:
According
to the results of the exam of the second course the problems with the
“Histology” discipline were identified.
The
Department of Histology links the decrease of academic performance compared to
the previous academic year, especially with a lot of gaps in practical classes
made by students, which had been worked out at the wrong time, or hadn’t been
worked out at all.
It was
those students, who had the lowest scores on practical skills, and by that
reason most of them received unsatisfactory ratings on the second stage of the
examination.
After
analyzing the results of the session, the we have identified the main reasons
of low performance of students:
1. The
difficulty and the large volume of practical material of the discipline;
2. The
low level of basic knowledge of students;
3. The
low academic discipline of students;
4. The
low level of professional culture and teaching skills of some teachers;
5. Lack
of discipline and responsibility of some tutors.
An action
plan for improving the quality of education has been developed according to the
abovementioned problems.
The fourth course had shown the largest number of unsatisfactory
ratings on the subject of “Surgical diseases”.
The department has got a number
of plans for improvement of the educational process and conducting the examinations:
1. To improve the material and
technical base of the Department;
2. To perfect methods of
assessment of students’ knowledgebase by competencies;
3. To implement the interactive
teaching methods into the learning process.
III. The results of the
students’ questionaries
The survey on theme “Results of
the winter session of 2012-2013 academic year” was conducted for students of
all faculties in the period of 11-15 February 2013.
The purpose of the survey: to
identify problems in organization of winter session and to develop
recommendations for improvement by examining the students’ opinions.
3.1. The Unit No.1 - Preparing
for the session
The main problems which appears
during preparing to the session specified by students are: the emotional distress,
violation of the day, lack of textbooks, the difficulty in remembering the
teaching material, as well as their own laziness.
However, about 16% of the
interviewed students hadn’t met any problems during the preparation and exams.
The vast majority of students
(82%) had marked that the exam questions are given by teachers in advance.
The rest of students have taken
these questions from AIS KazNMU (10%), on the day of the exam (3%), and 5% did
not answer.
3.2. The Unit No. 2 -
Organizing of the session
Half of the students responded
that there were no problems during the exams. The other half has pointed out
the following issues:
1. A short time is given for preparation of the examination card.
2. Incomprehensible and even incorrect questions are regularly
found.
3. Uncomfortable atmosphere in the Test Center, which contains of
the aggressive behavior of the center staff, and that the staff, as well as
teachers themselves, interfere students by loud talking, shouting, noise.
4. There can be met an unfair assessment by teachers, as well as
the bad attitude of examiners in relation to students.
The exam questions were clear
for the half of students, the second half have had some difficulties.
Most of students (86%) from the
survey reported that teachers announce the results on the day of the exam, but
still there is a part of students who find out their marks within few days.
3.3. The Unit No. 3 - Teaching
methods
Average rating of a “relationship
between student and teacher” according to the respondents’ opinion is 8.0 out
of 10.
66% of students
indicated that teachers use interactive teaching methods, and in the same time
the one fifth of students said, that it happens all the time.
The remaining one sixth of
students from the survey said that they had never been trained by interactive
method, and the 2% were unable to answer.
3.4. The Unit No. 4 –
corruption
More than a half of students
(68%) and almost all the students of all the other faculties (from 89% to 96%)
had responded that they did not have to pay bribes.
The 23% of students from the
“general medicine” faculty said that they had bribed teachers. Students even
marked the department and the surname of the teacher.
About one half of students
believe that there is no bribery in the university, and the one-third doesn’t
know “is there or not”.
About 18% of respondents
acknowledge the existence of this fact, and the majority of students believe,
that it is a student himself who acts as an initiator.
And in this case, the “bribe”
term is used by students not only for
describing the money reward, but also for presents, such as flash-drives,
posters, etc.
The Department of the
socio-cultural competence of students’ development had conducted a students
survey in order to get further information about the teachers, who were marked
by the students as a bribe-takers. The contingent of respondents consisted of
students, educated by those teachers.
The students hadn’t confirmed
any information about bribery in relation to any of the pointed teachers.
IV. Measures for
improvement of educational process quality
4.1. Department of general
education
The first stage of the Latin
language exam is moved to the Testing Center, because it takes much time for
examiners to check its results and it affects the second stage of the exam and
the date of announcement of the results.
The balance of levels of
difficulty among tasks of the exam questions is set up.
The evaluation criteria of the
second stage of the exam are improved and modified.
It was decided to tighten
measures of control over class attendance and working discipline on the part of
the Educational Department.
4.2. «Life sciences» Department
The focus groups of students of
1-3 courses, where the researches on the identification of possible problems
and their solutions in the departments of molecular biology and biochemistry
are conducted, were selected in conjunction with the Dean of the Faculty.
Studies have shown a low level of motivation of students, a lack of basic
knowledge of the school course, problems of adaptation to studying in
university, and others. The activities for implementing during the summer
examinations are planned.
Meetings with the staff of
departments are held on the issues identified during assessment of the results
of students’ questioning.
The conversation was held for
heads of departments on the corruption cases, and also some special events are
planned to be held with the participation of the Dean, Advisor to the Rector
Mustafina J.G.
Department of educational and
methodical work together with Education Departments provide training of testers
and experts on the second stage of the exam on practical skills assessment.
There are several activities
taken by departments for expanding the transparency and objectivity of the
examination: adding the representatives of students to the observers’ team,
conducting exams by two or more examiners, improving the checklists and
assessment criteria for the second stage of the exam, and other.
An explanatory work on
prevention of corruption, which bears no monetary nature (services, gifts,
etc.), as well as on improvement of the emotional comfort of students, are
included in the list of issues to be discussed.
The following activities were
held by the department of physical education and health, which had been marked
by students as connected to the corruption:
"No to Corruption!"
seminar for students of 1 - 2 courses where Mustafina J.G. and Shyngysbaeva L.
were involved. "About Corruption", "No to Corruption" round
tables with students of first year were organized by the teachers of the
department.
Conversations on the
strengthening supervision of the educational process by departments were held
with heads of departments.
4.3. Department of
morphological disciplines
1. Work with teachers
The Education Department and
Heads of Departments are recommended to strengthen the monitoring of compliance
of labor discipline of teachers and schedule of training sessions;
Scientific and Methodological
Conferences on the application of modern educational technologies in the
teaching process are planned on 2013 year;
Training courses for
professional development of teachers and the subsequent dissemination of
teaching experience are planned.
II. Work with students
Strengthen the monitoring of
students’ progress and attendance;
To organize training and
education committees together with the deans, and to actively recruit the
tutors of study groups of first and second
courses to work of commissions;
Organization of
extra-curricular activities for poorly performing students, involving the student-activists.
Conducting Olympiads on
Sciences. On the first course the Olympiad on organs of support and motion was
held in April.
The active involvement of
students and young teachers into research projects in order to increase their
motivation and mutual understanding.
Organizing and conducting the
contest for scientific work of KazNMU students.
III. Improving the training and
methodological support of the educational process
The creation of electronic
library accessible for students via the Internet is in the process.
Increasing the use of digital
educational resources by students and staff by means of training and seminars
organization.
The electronic testing
introduction into everyday practice for current control.
To continue work on defining
the need of purchasing or developing
and publishing the training manuals and textbooks, as well as analyzing the
quality of literature.
4.4. The Department of
Dentistry
I. Activities carried out
All exam materials, including
evaluation rubrics (checklists) are discussed at a meeting of the dentistry
CPC, approved by the Director of ED of dentistry.
In order to avoid technical
errors, the calculation of admission rating of students was made within an
Excel spreadsheet.
Professors and docents, who
hadn’t worked in groups, were involved to conducting of the exam’s second
stage.
Visiting Professor, MD Britova
A.A. (Department of Dentistry, University. J. Wise, V. Novgorod, Russia) was
involved for admission of the exam as an independent expert and examiner.
Competencies assessment was
performed by filling the evaluation rubrics during examination in presence of
the student, the timely feedback from the examiner was provided, the resulting
mark had been resounded once and input in examination journal and examination
sheet.
In order to ensure the session
transparency, the exam materials are analyzed. The necessary correction of
evaluation rubrics of the second stage of the exam is made.
II. Action plan for improvement
of the educational process quality
1. Test tasks development by
attracting the focus groups.
2. The involvement of
independent experts to the expert assessment base of tests.
3. Conducting the trial
testing, followed by a detailed analysis of the quality of tasks in the test
form.
4. The improvement of the
advisory work before exams.
5. The widespread introduction
of distance learning format counseling for students.
6. The timely introduction of
the list of tasks for the exam to students, providing the information through
AIS KazNMU.
7. Suppression of leakage of
information on the exam materials (providing tasks in the test form without
answers).
8. Informing the teaching
personnel about critics of communication skills of teachers.
9. Conducting the explanatory
work for preventing corruption, including corruption with no monetary nature
(services, gifts, etc.).
10. Active involvement of
independent examiners to admission of the exam’s second stage.
4.5. Department of Surgery,
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Activities for improvement of
educational process: Adjustment of
examination tests tasks using an independent external review is carried out; The mandatory consultation of the departments
before the exams, using the remote form of counseling students (questions and
answers by e-mail, using the resources of the AIS-KazNMU) is scheduled.
Informing the students about
the results of exam in the same day is obligatory.
4.6. Department of Internal Medicine
Activities for improvement of educational process:
According to the results of
session it is decided to revise the test database, to pay more attention in
classes for the test tasks, to organize
conditions for independent work of students in the department, to increase the
number of individual consultations with students.
The second stage of the exam
for the third course should be held immediately after finishing the module of
the “Propedeutics of Internal Medicine” Discipline.
To change the system of
multiple registration of examination sheets.
V. Summary
This report was discussed at
the academic council of the university. Action plan to improve the quality,
developed on the basis of the analysis of the winter session and questioning of
students was approved. About how events will unfold, we will write the
following article.