Abstract
What subjects UK medical schools teach, what ways they teach subjects, and how much they teach those subjects is unclear. Whether teaching differences matter is a separate, important question. This study provides a detailed picture of timetabled undergraduate teaching activity at 25 UK medical schools, particularly in relation to problem-based learning (PBL).
Method
The Analysis of Teaching of Medical Schools (AToMS) survey used detailed timetables provided by 25 schools with standard 5-year courses. Timetabled teaching events were coded in terms of course year, duration, teaching format, and teaching content. Ten schools used PBL. Teaching times from timetables were validated against two other studies that had assessed GP teaching and lecture, seminar, and tutorial times.
Results
A total of 47,258 timetabled teaching events in the academic year 2014/2015 were analysed, including SSCs (student-selected components) and elective studies. A typical UK medical student receives 3960 timetabled hours of teaching during their 5-year course. There was a clear difference between the initial 2 years which mostly contained basic medical science content and the later 3 years which mostly consisted of clinical teaching, although some clinical teaching occurs in the first 2 years. Medical schools differed in duration, format, and content of teaching. Two main factors underlay most of the variation between schools, Traditional vs PBL teaching and Structured vs Unstructured teaching. A curriculum map comparing medical schools was constructed using those factors. PBL schools differed on a number of measures, having more PBL teaching time, fewer lectures, more GP teaching, less surgery, less formal teaching of basic science, and more sessions with unspecified content.
Discussion
UK medical schools differ in both format and content of teaching. PBL and non-PBL schools clearly differ, albeit with substantial variation within groups, and overlap in the middle. The important question of whether differences in teaching matter in terms of outcomes is analysed in a companion study (MedDifs) which examines how teaching differences relate to university infrastructure, entry requirements, student perceptions, and outcomes in Foundation Programme and postgraduate training.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 126 |
| Journal | BMC Medicine |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 14 May 2020 |
Keywords
- Clinical teaching
- Lectures
- Medical school differences
- Problem-based learning
- Self-regulated learning
- Teaching styles
- Timetables
- Tutorials
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The Analysis of Teaching of Medical Schools (AToMS) survey: an analysis of 47,258 timetabled teaching events in 25 UK medical schools relating to timing, duration, teaching formats, teaching content, and problem-based learning. / Devine, Oliver Patrick; Harborne, Andrew Christopher; Horsfall, Hugo Layard et al.
In: BMC Medicine, Vol. 18, No. 1, 126, 14.05.2020.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - The Analysis of Teaching of Medical Schools (AToMS) survey: an analysis of 47,258 timetabled teaching events in 25 UK medical schools relating to timing, duration, teaching formats, teaching content, and problem-based learning
AU - Devine, Oliver Patrick
AU - Harborne, Andrew Christopher
AU - Horsfall, Hugo Layard
AU - Joseph, Tobin
AU - Marshall-Andon, Tess
AU - Samuels, Ryan
AU - Kearsley, Joshua William
AU - Abbas, Nadine
AU - Baig, Hassan
AU - Beecham, Joseph
AU - Benons, Natasha
AU - Caird, Charlie
AU - Clark, Ryan
AU - Cope, Thomas
AU - Coultas, James
AU - Debenham, Luke
AU - Douglas, Sarah
AU - Eldridge, Jack
AU - Hughes-Gooding, Thomas
AU - Jakubowska, Agnieszka
AU - Jones, Oliver
AU - Lancaster, Eve
AU - MacMillan, Calum
AU - McAllister, Ross
AU - Merzougui, Wassim
AU - Phillips, Ben
AU - Phillips, Simon
AU - Risk, Omar
AU - Sage, Adam
AU - Sooltangos, Aisha
AU - Spencer, Robert
AU - Tajbakhsh, Roxanne
AU - Adesalu, Oluseyi
AU - Aganin, Ivan
AU - Ahmed, Ammar
AU - Aiken, Katherine
AU - Akeredolu, Alimatu-Sadia
AU - Alam, Ibrahim
AU - Ali, Aamna
AU - Anderson, Richard
AU - Ang, Jia Jun
AU - Anis, Fady Sameh
AU - Aojula, Sonam
AU - Arthur, Catherine
AU - Ashby, Alena
AU - Ashraf, Ahmed
AU - Aspinall, Emma
AU - Awad, Mark
AU - Yahaya, Abdul-Muiz Azri
AU - Badhrinarayanan, Shreya
AU - Bandyopadhyay, Soham
AU - Barnes, Sam
AU - Bassey-Duke, Daisy
AU - Boreham, Charlotte
AU - Braine, Rebecca
AU - Brandreth, Joseph
AU - Carrington, Zoe
AU - Cashin, Zoe
AU - Chatterjee, Shaunak
AU - Chawla, Mehar
AU - Chean, Chung Shen
AU - Clements, Chris
AU - Clough, Richard
AU - Coulthurst, Jessica
AU - Curry, Liam
AU - Daniels, Vinnie Christine
AU - Davies, Simon
AU - Davis, Rebecca
AU - De Waal, Hanelie
AU - Desai, Nasreen
AU - Douglas, Hannah
AU - Druce, James
AU - Ejamike, Lady-Namera
AU - Esere, Meron
AU - Eyre, Alex
AU - Fazmin, Ibrahim Talal
AU - Fitzgerald-Smith, Sophia
AU - Ford, Verity
AU - Freeston, Sarah
AU - Garnett, Katherine
AU - General, Whitney
AU - Gilbert, Helen
AU - Gowie, Zein
AU - Grafton-Clarke, Ciaran
AU - Gudka, Keshni
AU - Gumber, Leher
AU - Gupta, Rishi
AU - Harlow, Chris
AU - Harrington, Amy
AU - Heaney, Adele
AU - Ho, Wing Hang Serene
AU - Holloway, Lucy
AU - Hood, Christina
AU - Houghton, Eleanor
AU - Houshangi, Saba
AU - Howard, Emma
AU - Human, Benjamin
AU - Hunter, Harriet
AU - Hussain, Ifrah
AU - Hussain, Sami
AU - Jackson-Taylor, Richard Thomas
AU - Jacob-Ramsdale, Bronwen
AU - Janjuha, Ryan
AU - Jawad, Saleh
AU - Jelani, Muzzamil
AU - Johnston, David
AU - Jones, Mike
AU - Kalidindi, Sadhana
AU - Kalsi, Savraj
AU - Kalyanasundaram, Asanish
AU - Kane, Anna
AU - Kaur, Sahaj
AU - Al-Othman, Othman Khaled
AU - Khan, Qaisar
AU - Khullar, Sajan
AU - Kirkland, Priscilla
AU - Lawrence-Smith, Hannah
AU - Leeson, Charlotte
AU - Lenaerts, Julius Elisabeth Richard
AU - Long, Kerry
AU - Lubbock, Simon
AU - Burrell, Jamie Mac Donald
AU - Maguire, Rachel
AU - Mahendran, Praveen
AU - Majeed, Saad
AU - Malhotra, Prabhjot Singh
AU - Mandagere, Vinay
AU - Mantelakis, Angelos
AU - McGovern, Sophie
AU - Mosuro, Anjola
AU - Moxley, Adam
AU - Mustoe, Sophie
AU - Myers, Sam
AU - Nadeem, Kiran
AU - Nasseri, Reza
AU - Newman, Tom
AU - Nzewi, Richard
AU - Ogborne, Rosalie
AU - Omatseye, Joyce
AU - Paddock, Sophie
AU - Parkin, James
AU - Patel, Mohit
AU - Pawar, Sohini
AU - Pearce, Stuart
AU - Penrice, Samuel
AU - Purdy, Julian
AU - Ramjan, Raisa
AU - Randhawa, Ratan
AU - Rasul, Usman
AU - Raymond-Taggert, Elliot
AU - Razey, Rebecca
AU - Razzaghi, Carmel
AU - Reel, Eimear
AU - Revell, Elliot John
AU - Rigbye, Joanna
AU - Rotimi, Oloruntobi
AU - Said, Abdelrahman
AU - Sanders, Emma
AU - Sangal, Pranoy
AU - Grandal, Nora Sangvik
AU - Shah, Aadam
AU - Shah, Rahul Atul
AU - Shotton, Oliver
AU - Sims, Daniel
AU - Smart, Katie
AU - Smith, Martha Amy
AU - Smith, Nick
AU - Sopian, Aninditya Salma
AU - South, Matthew
AU - Speller, Jessica
AU - Syer, Tom J.
AU - Ta, Ngan Hong
AU - Tadross, Daniel
AU - Thompson, Benjamin
AU - Trevett, Jess
AU - Tyler, Matthew
AU - Ullah, Roshan
AU - Utukuri, Mrudula
AU - Vadera, Shree
AU - van den Tooren, Harriet
AU - Venturini, Sara
AU - Vijayakumar, Aradhya
AU - Vine, Melanie
AU - Wellbelove, Zoe
AU - Wittner, Liora
AU - Yong, Geoffrey Hong Kiat
AU - Ziyada, Farris
AU - McManus, I. C.
PY - 2020/5/14
Y1 - 2020/5/14
N2 - BackgroundWhat subjects UK medical schools teach, what ways they teach subjects, and how much they teach those subjects is unclear. Whether teaching differences matter is a separate, important question. This study provides a detailed picture of timetabled undergraduate teaching activity at 25 UK medical schools, particularly in relation to problem-based learning (PBL).MethodThe Analysis of Teaching of Medical Schools (AToMS) survey used detailed timetables provided by 25 schools with standard 5-year courses. Timetabled teaching events were coded in terms of course year, duration, teaching format, and teaching content. Ten schools used PBL. Teaching times from timetables were validated against two other studies that had assessed GP teaching and lecture, seminar, and tutorial times.ResultsA total of 47,258 timetabled teaching events in the academic year 2014/2015 were analysed, including SSCs (student-selected components) and elective studies. A typical UK medical student receives 3960 timetabled hours of teaching during their 5-year course. There was a clear difference between the initial 2 years which mostly contained basic medical science content and the later 3 years which mostly consisted of clinical teaching, although some clinical teaching occurs in the first 2 years. Medical schools differed in duration, format, and content of teaching. Two main factors underlay most of the variation between schools, Traditional vs PBL teaching and Structured vs Unstructured teaching. A curriculum map comparing medical schools was constructed using those factors. PBL schools differed on a number of measures, having more PBL teaching time, fewer lectures, more GP teaching, less surgery, less formal teaching of basic science, and more sessions with unspecified content.DiscussionUK medical schools differ in both format and content of teaching. PBL and non-PBL schools clearly differ, albeit with substantial variation within groups, and overlap in the middle. The important question of whether differences in teaching matter in terms of outcomes is analysed in a companion study (MedDifs) which examines how teaching differences relate to university infrastructure, entry requirements, student perceptions, and outcomes in Foundation Programme and postgraduate training.
AB - BackgroundWhat subjects UK medical schools teach, what ways they teach subjects, and how much they teach those subjects is unclear. Whether teaching differences matter is a separate, important question. This study provides a detailed picture of timetabled undergraduate teaching activity at 25 UK medical schools, particularly in relation to problem-based learning (PBL).MethodThe Analysis of Teaching of Medical Schools (AToMS) survey used detailed timetables provided by 25 schools with standard 5-year courses. Timetabled teaching events were coded in terms of course year, duration, teaching format, and teaching content. Ten schools used PBL. Teaching times from timetables were validated against two other studies that had assessed GP teaching and lecture, seminar, and tutorial times.ResultsA total of 47,258 timetabled teaching events in the academic year 2014/2015 were analysed, including SSCs (student-selected components) and elective studies. A typical UK medical student receives 3960 timetabled hours of teaching during their 5-year course. There was a clear difference between the initial 2 years which mostly contained basic medical science content and the later 3 years which mostly consisted of clinical teaching, although some clinical teaching occurs in the first 2 years. Medical schools differed in duration, format, and content of teaching. Two main factors underlay most of the variation between schools, Traditional vs PBL teaching and Structured vs Unstructured teaching. A curriculum map comparing medical schools was constructed using those factors. PBL schools differed on a number of measures, having more PBL teaching time, fewer lectures, more GP teaching, less surgery, less formal teaching of basic science, and more sessions with unspecified content.DiscussionUK medical schools differ in both format and content of teaching. PBL and non-PBL schools clearly differ, albeit with substantial variation within groups, and overlap in the middle. The important question of whether differences in teaching matter in terms of outcomes is analysed in a companion study (MedDifs) which examines how teaching differences relate to university infrastructure, entry requirements, student perceptions, and outcomes in Foundation Programme and postgraduate training.
KW - Clinical teaching
KW - Lectures
KW - Medical school differences
KW - Problem-based learning
KW - Self-regulated learning
KW - Teaching styles
KW - Timetables
KW - Tutorials
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084626146&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s12916-020-01571-4
DO - 10.1186/s12916-020-01571-4
M3 - Article
VL - 18
JO - BMC Medicine
JF - BMC Medicine
SN - 1741-7015
IS - 1
M1 - 126
ER -