Motivating Teachers by Assigning Each a Different Group of Medical Students to Educate on a Same Physiology Curriculum
Abstract
Aim. We intended to prove that if we construct groups of students by systematically sampling them from the whole alphabetically sorted group, then education on a same physiology curriculum of each different group by a different teacher can be a better alternative to the actual situation: one curriculum – one teacher. We will further name these groups ‘Alpha Groups’ (AGs).
Material and Methods. We used 4 large AGs of about 160 students and 4 small AGs of 40 students who were tested, during our University 2012 admission session, on a human biology (pre-physiology) curricula by 100 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) of which 75 questions were evaluating mainly memorizing skills and 25 MCQs were mainly thinking questions. We calculated the average and variance of marks for each AG on each type of MCQ and we analyzed for each AG the values of P and D indexes in each MCQ. We statistically compared the results between AGs.
Results. We found no significant differences, even between small AGs of 40 students, for none of the parameters. Therefore, if AGs would be evenly educated on a same physiology curriculum by different teachers, they should have the same results on a same neutral final evaluation. We could link MCQ quality to the teachers.
Conclusions. If AGs have significantly different results on a proper MCQ test, that will probably be due to the unequal education they received and this should motivate each teacher to educate well his group of students. Furthermore, analysis of MCQs can motivate teachers to write good quality MCQs.