Browsing by Author "Louw, Alwyn J. N."

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    Effect of curriculum changes to enhance generic skills proficiency of 1st-year medical students
    (Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2016-05) Murdoch-Eaton, Debbie; Louw, Alwyn J. N.; Bezuidenhout, Juanita
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : Background: Curriculum review is a dynamic, iterative process, and the effect of change may not always be wholly predictable. At Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa revision of the MB,ChB curriculum was undertaken to meet enhanced and changing educational and medical practice, and to provide opportunities to enhance optimal generic skills underpinning effective learning, implemented in 2008. Objective: To determine the extent to which the newly implemented revised curriculum had an effect on experience in necessary generic skills of students in their first year of study. Methods: Students provided annual formal end-of-module evaluation in addition to focus group interviews. Evaluation by teaching staff was conducted by individual in-depth interviews. A validated generic skills questionnaire completed at the end of each academic year monitored the effect on students’ generic learning skills experience. Results: Feedback from these different evaluation methods identified specific needs in the newly implemented revised curriculum, including contextualisation of interventions, unnecessary duplication of content and malalignment of assessment. This led to minor curriculum changes and an educational capacity-building programme. These responsive curriculum changes after evaluation had the intended positive effect on students’ self reported acquisition of generic learning skills. Conclusion: The objective of the curriculum evaluation was to monitor content output and the acquisition of crucial generic learning skills. Implementation of a revised curriculum combined with ongoing responsive changes aligned with careful multimodality evaluation can ensure that, in addition to scientific knowledge and skills, generic learning skills development of students is facilitated.
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    Utilizing students’ experiences and opinions of feedback during problem based learning tutorials to develop a facilitator feedback guide : an exploratory qualitative study
    (BioMed Central, 2016-01-11) Mubuuke, Aloysius Gonzaga; Louw, Alwyn J. N.; Van Schalkwyk, Susan
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : Background: Feedback delivery within a Problem Based Learning tutorial is a key activity for facilitators in order to enhance student learning. The purpose of this study was to explore students’ experiences of feedback delivery in a PBL tutorial and use this information to design a feasible facilitator feedback delivery guide. Methods: It was an exploratory qualitative study in which individual interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with students who had an experience of the tutorial process. Data were collected through audio recording and writing of field notes. Thematic analysis was employed to generate the reported themes. Results: Students suggested that facilitators need to give comprehensive feedback on their knowledge construction process as well as feedback on other generic skills outside the knowledge domain such as their communication skills within the tutorial, their participation and team work as well as their interpersonal skills and self-evaluation abilities. From the findings, a structured facilitator feedback delivery guide was developed. Conclusion: In this study, we propose a structured feedback delivery guide for PBL facilitators that captures not only knowledge, but also other generic competencies. The guide is feasible in a wide range of contexts where PBL is institutionalized.