Perspectives on Learning From the Viewpoint of Medical Students: Curriculum Transition Impact Analysis

ABSTRACT Along with the technological advances and political and socio-cultural changes that have taken place over the years, educational perspectives have been reshaped, bringing new teaching methods and an expansion in the number of places. With these new educational environments, new challenges have arisen, and the need to adapt. Among the components that influence the learning process, this study seeks to understand the students’ perceptions of a new undergraduate course in Medicine in terms of its infrastructure, faculty and tutorials, its informal curriculum, composed of academic groups organized by the students and its didactic and pedagogical organization. Our research involved a questionnaire with 31 items, with response options on a Likert scale, which was applied to 208 students enrolled in the second to eighth periods. We divided the students into two groups: one composed of students in the fifth to eighth periods (G2), who had transitioned from a mixed teaching methodology, with traditional aspects and some active disciplines, to an active methodology; and a second group composed of students in the second to the fourth periods (G1), who had begun using active methodologies right from the start of their course. The students evaluated 41.9% of the items questioned as satisfactory and 19.3% as unsatisfactory. The items that were deemed most satisfactory were related to interdisciplinary contents and approach, recommended bibliography, use of active methodologies, integration with the community, teaching practices, teacher qualification and didactic equipment. The main points of disagreement between the groups related to didactic and pedagogical aspects, such as the articulation of theory and practice, interdisciplinary contents, curricular flexibility, relevance of the contents, integration with the community and practical activities. The issues that received most criticism form the students were related to the teacher-to-student ratio, teaching practices in the more advanced periods, library components and psychological and pedagogical support. In general, we can see that despite the many difficulties encountered, in the context of a new course, there were more positives than negatives that influenced learning. Nevertheless, the program needs some restructuring to ensure the best experience in the teaching-learning process.