Students' attitudes to small-group work in community health

To encourage fourth-year medical students to review their ethnocentric attitudes to the politicized issues of population and undernutrition in South Africa, small-group work (SGW) was introduced during a month's teaching in community health at the University of Cape Town. We tested several formats for these sessions and chose one which seemed effective. This study examined the remaining students' attitudes to SGW as a means of briefly examining complex emotive topics. Sixty-nine students of a class of 168 were asked to complete a Likert questionnaire on their attitudes to SGW. Fifty-five students (79.7%) agreed that group work had allowed them to engage the topics briefly but usefully and 62 (90%) thought that the topics lent themselves to SGW. While 52 (75.3%) were not confused, 5 (7.2%) were confused by SGW. Thirty-nine students (56.5%) preferred lectures, tutorials or seminars to SGW. Thirty-seven students (53.6%) needed more fact to benefit fully from the SGW. Students found SGW appropriate for briefly examining these topics but wanted more fact to benefit fully from the sessions. The survey yielded valuable feedback from students on SGW as a means of addressing controversial and attitude-laden issues of central importance to the delivery of effective health care in Southern Africa.