Musculoskeletal education: a curriculum evaluation at one university

BMC Medical Education

Research Article

Jocelyn M Lockyer¹  Marcia L Clark²  Carol R Hutchison³ 

[1] Department of Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada;Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta, Canada;Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada;

关键词: Multiple Choice Question;    Case Study Approach;    Medical School Curriculum;    Medical College Admission Test;    Small Group Session;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6920-10-93

 received in 2010-04-15, accepted in 2010-12-12,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe increasing burden of illness related to musculoskeletal diseases makes it essential that attention be paid to musculoskeletal education in medical schools. This case study examines the undergraduate musculoskeletal curriculum at one medical school.MethodsA case study research methodology used quantitative and qualitative approaches to systematically examine the undergraduate musculoskeletal course at the University of Calgary (Alberta, Canada) Faculty of Medicine. The aim of the study was to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum guided by four questions: (1) Was the course structured according to standard principles for curriculum design as described in the Kern framework? (2) How did students and faculty perceive the course? (3) Was the assessment of the students valid and reliable? (4) Were the course evaluations completed by student and faculty valid and reliable?ResultsThe analysis showed that the structure of the musculoskeletal course mapped to many components of Kern's framework in course design. The course had a high level of commitment by teachers, included a valid and reliable final examination, and valid evaluation questionnaires that provided relevant information to assess curriculum function. The curricular review identified several weaknesses in the course: the apparent absence of a formalized needs assessment, course objectives that were not specific or measurable, poor development of clinical presentations, small group sessions that exceeded normal 'small group' sizes, and poor alignment between the course objectives, examination blueprint and the examination. Both students and faculty members perceived the same strengths and weaknesses in the curriculum. Course evaluation data provided information that was consistent with the findings from the interviews with the key stakeholders.ConclusionsThe case study approach using the Kern framework and selected questions provided a robust way to assess a curriculum, identify its strengths and weaknesses and guide improvements.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Clark et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.