Lectures, interactive learning, and knowledge retention in continuing medical education

✍ Scribed by Jay Silverberg; Anne Taylor-Vaisey; John Paul Szalai; Jane Tipping

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 313 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-1912
• DOI: 10.1002/chp.4750150407

✦ Synopsis

At an annual continuing medical education (CME) event, the subject of the management of asthma in pregnancy was taught to attendees using a lecture format and, in consecutive years, a small group interactive teaching format was used. For both years of the study, knowledge retention was assessed by comparing multiple choice test scores on a pretest, a post-test, taken shortly after the educational intenention, and a follow-up test taken 3 months after the educational intervention. Scores showed a signifcant improvement following the lecture and small group teaching formats for the post-test and follow-up tests. Scores at the preteaching and post-teaching tests were similar for the lecture and small group teaching formats. The scores on the follow-up test, however, were slightly betterfor the lecture group compared with the small group teaching format, although the difference was small and not signifcant. We conclude, therefore, that in a CME setting the lecture format of teaching compared favorably with small group learning in terms of knowledge retention.