Small group teaching improves students` acquisition of knowledge and skills

To evaluate the effectiveness of small group teaching (SGT) in improving the undergraduate medical students` knowledge and skills.

This study took place at the College of Medicine, Taibah University, Madina, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between September 2011 and September 2012. Small group teaching was applied by the surgery department. In this prospective study, fifth year students were divided into groups of 8 students, and teaching strategies of SGT were applied. The marks in the clinical examinations of long case and objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) of the students with a traditional teaching cohort of 2010-2011 were compared to a SGT cohort of 2011-2012. Data were analyzed by comparing the means, standard error, and standard deviation.

One hundred and sixty-four students were incorporated, 82 students for each year (41 males and 41 females) in each group. The analysis showed a statistical significant difference in marks obtained by male and female students of both cohorts (p=0.000). In the 2011-2012 group, male students` mean score was 43.1+/-2.99 which was higher than the 2010-2011 male students` (mean+/-SD: 38.7+/-2.81; p=0.000). Similarly, the 2011-2012 female students attained a higher mean score than those in the 2010-2011 (39.8+/-4.0 and 35.6+/-3.88) (p=0.000).

Small group teaching is a valuable strategy in enhancing students` performance in the clinical settings. Small group teaching can be applied to other clinical disciplines of the medical curriculum for production of safe and clinically competent graduates.