Active learning methodologies: practices in collective health education for medicine students

Abstract:

Introduction:

The generational culture has urged new challenges for medical schools to be tackled, including reforms of the care model and addressing new patterns of illness. These changes justified movements in the 1990s to reorganize medical education. Meanwhile, innovations in education have been encouraged, among other sources of reference, in the sociocultural theory on the relationships between the learning process and higher psychological functions. The intersection of education, pedagogy and psychology has led to recognition of three dimensions of the human learning process: interpsychic plane, that is, sharing between individuals; mediations of objects and images, that is, semiotics; and the intrapsychic plane that is related to the internalization of constructed knowledge. Theoretical advances and instructional technologies have boosted teaching models based on active learning methodologies (ALM), which have been contrasted with the traditional model of lecturing in medical schools.

Experience report:

To present teaching experiences in the development and application of ALM in collective health education for medical students.

Discussion:

Based on the experience of adapting the pedagogical model of the Federal University of Minas Gerais School of Medicine, three methods were discussed: project design, flipped classroom and peer instruction, as well as their pedagogical foundations. We examined the coherence between the values of the current generation of students, paradigm shifts in the provision of health services and the practices of pedagogical innovations combined with the use of information and communication technologies in teaching projects. The flipped classroom and peer instruction supported by information and communication technologies gave a new format to the classroom in order to make learning more meaningful. Recurrent hesitations by students were interpreted as tensions between their passivity in the traditional model and the call for greater implication when ALMs are used. Intense teaching work was required to make the didactic transposition. Deficiencies in the teacher’s communication skills must be overcome.

Conclusion:

The use of ALM, besides being consistent with the culture of this generation of students, contributes significantly to the development of core competencies in the training of medical students. For the near future, systematic evaluation of the proposal and more technological resources will be necessary.

Keywords:
Learning; Teaching Materials; Medical Education; Higher Education; Public Health