Effectiveness of Test-Enhanced Learning (TEL) in lectures for undergraduate medical students

• Published in: Pakistan journal of medical sciences Vol. 33; no. 6; pp. 1339 - 1343
• Main Authors: Ayyub, Aisha, Mahboob, Usman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pakistan Knowledge Bylanes 31.12.2017; AsiaNet Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd; Professional Medical Publications
• Subjects: Active learning; Clinical trials; Cognitive psychology; College students; Data collection; Endocrinology; Ethics; Health education; Medical schools; Medical students; Memory; Original; Pathology; Public speaking; Retention; Students; Studies; Teaching; Teaching methods; Islamabad Pakistan; Learning; Medical students; Undergraduate lectures; Medical education; Test-enhanced learning; Testing effect
• ISSN: 1682-024X; 1681-715X
• DOI: 10.12669/pjms.336.13358

To determine the effectiveness of Test-Enhanced learning as a learning tool in lectures for undergraduate medical students. This quantitative, randomized controlled trial included eighty-four students of 4 year MBBS from Yusra Medical & Dental College, Islamabad. The duration of study was from March 2016 to August 2016. After obtaining the informed consent; participants were equally assigned to interventional and non-interventional study groups through stratified randomization. Single best answer MCQs of special pathology were used as data collection instrument after validation. A pre- and post-test was taken from both groups, before and after the intervention, respectively and their results were compared using SPSS version 21. There were 13 male (31%) and 29 female (69%) participants in each study group who showed an equivalent baseline performance on pre-test (p=0.95). Statistically significant difference was found among mean scores of interventional and non-interventional study groups at exit exam (p=0.00). Interventional group also showed a significant improvement in their post-test scores (mean: 17.17±1.59) as compared to pre-test scores (mean: 6.19±1.81). Test-enhanced learning has significant effect on improving the learning of course content delivered to undergraduate medical students through lectures.