domingo, 8 de febrero de 2009

SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING IN A COURSE OF GYNECOLOGY & OBSTETRICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GUANAJUATO CAMPUS LEON DIVISION OF MEDICINE AND NUTRITION MEXICO


Hernández Arvizu Esaúl, Davalos Diaz Guillermina, Sanchez Obregon Ricardo , Lozano Garcia Juan Jose, López Salazar Luis Humbert0, Vargas Salado Enrrique, Rivera Cisneros Antonio Eugenio, Lucio Martines Jose Luis

Self-directed learning is a process in which the student assumes the primary responsibility of planning, implementing, and evaluating his own learning process and either and agent or resource, that is to say, a professor or tutor, to facilitate the process. It is also defined as the ability adults have for critical self-reflexion and for changing their lives.

Distance education is a pattern by which cognitive information and formative messages are transferred through ways which do not require a presence contiguity relationship in determined spaces.

OBJECTIVES:
To present the experience of self-directed learning in a course of Gynecology and Obstetrics for undergraduate medical students at the University of Guanajuato in pupils of the eighth and ninth semesters.

Methodology:
The course has a semi-presential modality and uses the virtual platform Blackboard® (http://ceadug.ugto.mx/), in which the resources for self-evaluation, forums and work pages are found. The self-study contents include tests, videos, forums, individual and group work, literature, scientific articles, and links to sites to support the course http://ginecologia-ginecologiaobstetricia.blogspot.com/.
The contents of the presential modality are carried out in the form of seminars; the meetings in the classroom are videotaped with the aim that the student subsequently reviews the videos to refine his communication skills. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBXTs98Dqsw

To facilitate the learning of concepts, the student uses information organizers (mental maps, conceptual maps and synoptic pictures) to familiarize himself with a heuristic instrument in order to raise awareness of the elements involved in the construction of new knowledge; this method of analysis readily allows the organization of thoughts using the mental abilities to the top.
The assessment of the course is formative. The portfolio methodology is used to compile learning information products that have been implemented in the course (mental maps, tables, clinical cases, self and co-evaluations). This method shows the students’ abilities and achievements, the way they think, ask, analyze, synthesize, produce or create; it also shows the way they interact and relate to other people, allowing to identify the quality of their learning in a comprehensive way.

The use of the portfolio, as an assessment resource, is based on the idea that the educational nature of the process provides a valuable opportunity to reflect on the growth of the students and to introduce changes along the program. It allows the teachers view the students’ work in the teaching context as a complex activity with interrelated elements.

RESULTS: REFLECTIVE CONCLUSION.

The educator, in his reflexive vocation, must also be prepared to teach an anticipatory learning, i.e., not only must he have the necessary teaching tools but he also must provide his students with the learning tools which will help them both face different situations in their lives and have the capacity to solve problems on a daily basis, under solid and moral principles. Therefore, we must confront the evaluation as an anticipatory process. It is our duty to let our students know the criteria by which they will be assessed so that they should be able to anticipate in the how and why they will be evaluated.

The professor should know and implement different educational techniques, because often times his performance can be derived from the election and activation of means to achieve certain goals. However the teacher’s practice and evaluation cannot always be predictable, that is why the teacher must know other forms of conceptualizing teaching and assessment, without making them to appear dichotomous situations.

For many, the teaching practice, in which undoubtedly the evaluation is included, is an art that cannot, by any means, be pigeonholed in a program; what matters is that both the teacher and student activate their learning schemes. To achieve it, the professor must permanently diagnose the situation of the group, and develop tailored strategies to get to motivate each one of his students’ learning.

As perceived by the students, the development and use of the portfolio provides them with opportunities to build their own educational vision through an active engagement with the contents; it also makes them feel their school learning as their own.

Advantages:

Student learning is more effective; it increases professor-learner collaborative learning, and a continuous assessment in real life (at the bedside of the patient) situations can be obtained through clinical loggers.

Disadvantages:

Initially, the student, because of his conservative attitude, finds it difficult to accept an innovative approach. However, he eventually accepts it with enthusiasm when he realizes its impact on the formative assessment. Finally, it takes the examiners more time and effort to implement it.

BIBLIOGRAFÍA.
Davis M.H. et al. (2001) Portfolio assessment in medical students,’ final examinations. Medical Teacher 23:357-366.
Hernández Arvizu E. (2008) http://ceadug.ugto.mx Curso 21001gineco-obstetricia.Curso 21004 electivos. Facultad de de medicina de león universidad de Guanajuato.  http://148.214.127.100/
Rosales, Carlos, (1997), “Evaluar es reflexionar sobre la enseñanza”. Segunda Edición, Editorial Narcea, S.A., Ediciones Madrid, Cáp.1 – 5.
Sanmartí, Neus y Jeume Jorba, (1995), “Autorregulación de los procesos de aprendizaje y construcción de conocimientos”. En: Alambique Nª 4, año 2. Grao Educación. Barcelona – España, p.p. 59 – 77.
XIX FIGO World Congress of Gynecology & Obstetrics. Cape Town, South Africa
4th-9th. Octuber 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7OmIJuTbaw&NR=1