[Comparative studies on the teaching of oral pathology]

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Oral Pathology

Background:

• Effective teaching methods are crucial for knowledge acquisition in medical fields.
• Oral pathology education requires evaluation of diverse teaching strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the effectiveness of different teaching methods in oral pathology.
• To assess student preferences and long-term knowledge retention across various educational systems.

Main Methods:

• Developed an oral pathology curriculum with syllabus, lectures, and audiovisual aids.
• Utilized multiple-choice questions with a discrimination index > 0.25 to assess educational achievement.
• Conducted short-term (1-hour) and long-term (6-month) experiments comparing teaching modalities.

Main Results:

• Short-term: Conventional lectures (72%) were most effective, followed by audiovisual aids (63%) and printed materials (48%).
• Long-term: Students preferred audiovisual methods over lectures.
• Positive correlation observed between time spent with audiovisual aids and knowledge acquired.

Conclusions:

• Conventional lectures excel in immediate knowledge transmission.
• Audiovisual methods are preferred by students for sustained engagement and show promise for long-term knowledge retention in oral pathology.
• Teaching method effectiveness varies significantly based on duration and assessment metrics.