Integrating Teaching Methodologies for Learning Physiology
Authors: Montrezor Luís Henrique 
Published: April 2020

The teaching‐learning process is complex and requires continuous research and dedication. Research has been important to prove that student achievement can improve when active methodologies are properly implemented, either in isolation or integrated into lectures. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the performance and perception of medical students after integrating short lectures with active methodologies – collaborative work and debate. The activity was carried out with students (n = 50) from the second years of medical school to complement the physiological topics presented to the students during 60 min lectures. Subsequently, the students were divided in two groups (n = 25). The activity performed was related to the hypothalamus‐pituitary‐thyroid and hypothalamus‐pituitary‐adrenal axes. Such activity was organized as collaborative work, and as the dynamic also involved group debate the name of the Physiological Court was created. The students were instructed to prepare a study material on the proposed themes to be used on the day of the debate. The time available to prepare the study material was 6 h in laboratory hours. At the activity day the 2 students’ groups were organized in the classroom so that they were face‐to‐face. Debate rules: a) each group should preparer questions on the topics studied according to previously organized material; b) alternately, each group had 1 min to present their question; c) the group that received the question had up to 5 min to elaborate the answer; d) the group that heard the response from the other group had 3 minutes to analyze the answer; e) the group that answered the question will ask your question; f) the dynamic continues alternately between groups until all the questions have been asked and answered. Suggested total time for activity: between 2 h and 2h30min. Then, the students answered two tests: cognitive monitoring test (CMT) and integrative cognitive test (ICT). The CMT consists of 5 multiple choice questions (MCQ). The CMT was held 5 days after the physiological court. This ICT consists of all courses taken by the student in a given semester. On average, the ICT consists of 40 questions (answer written, MCQ, and association questions). The response time for this test was up to 4 h. The ICT was held 5 days after the CMT test. Students also answered a questionnaire about their perception of the activities performed. For the present study we compared the results of the second years 2019 students who performed the activity with the second years 2018 students who did not perform the same activity. Statistical analysis of the data was performed using Student’s t‐test. The results were reported as means ± SD, and significant statistical differences were decided for p‐values < 0.05. Ninety‐eight percent of students showed a positive perception of the activities performed. After completion of the physiological court, 83 ± 13 (%) of students achieved grades above 7.1 on CMT, and 88 ± 6 (%) on ICT. The percentage of incorrect answers was 5 ± 1.3 (%) in CMT, and 3 ± 1.5(%) in ICT. The association of lectures with active methodologies was positive for the perception and the performance of students in the second years of medical school related to the physiology of the endocrine systems.