Perspectives of Final Year Students and Newly Qualified Doctors of the Teaching of Preclinical Courses at the College of Health Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

BACKGROUND: It is established that there is a strong relationship between perception and outcome of learners' satisfaction, achievement, and success and that a positive learning environment well received by learners is necessary for positive learning outcomes. This study is a first step in providing an answer to the question “how do learners perceive preclinical medical education in Ife” with the aim of obtaining information which can serve as basis for the review of teaching methods and improvement of learning environment. METHODOLOGY: A questionnaire adopted from two validated questionnaires (Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure questionnaire from Dundee and another from a study carried out in Bangladesh) was administered to 187 respondents comprising 106 final year students and 81 newly qualified doctors to obtain the information about their perception of teaching and learning of the three major preclinical participants. Items were rated using the 5-point Likert scale, and each item was scored 4-0. Data were analyzed using the descriptive and inferential statistics. Values were expressed as the mean of scores. RESULTS: The mean gross scores for the 19 items rated for anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology were 28.92, 35.76, and 45.06 (out of 76), respectively. Physiology had the highest score in all the subdomains examined, with 62% of the respondents rating their overall quality of learning experience in the subject “very good.” Scores for perception of learning environment were generally low (7.54 ± 0.43, 10.44 ± 0.42, and 12.51 ± 0.47, out of a total of 28 for anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology, respectively). CONCLUSION: The opinion of learners in this study emphasizes the need for the improvement of teaching methods and learning environment.