Integrated Teaching: Boon or a Bane?!

Objectives: The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of integrated teaching program using student feedback. Methods: A questionnaire to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing teaching program was prepared and distributed among 185 second year medical undergraduate students who underwent integrated teaching in their first year. Their responses were recorded, evaluated and analysed statistically. Additionally the performance of the students was also assessed by recording their year-wise results in the university examinations. This was further compared with the results of the students who were not exposed to integrated teaching in the past years and the findings were tabulated. Results: A positive response was received for the implementation of the integrated teaching in the curriculum by the student population. In their view, case presentations by the students were effective in providing a healthy problem solving approach and builds good communication skills. Guest lectures by clinical faculty encouraged them to study the pre-clinical subjects with greater interest. Video demonstrations of the dissected specimens deepened a students’ understanding of anatomical structures. Combination of these methods in integrated teaching made the teaching-learning program more effective. Conclusion: Integrated teaching was found to be an innovative method in strengthening the teaching-learning process and received wide acceptance from the student population.