What type of lectures students want? - a reaction evaluation of dental students.

INTRODUCTION An one hour didactic lecture is the common method of teaching in dental colleges in India. Lengthy lectures are boring and students are passive recipients of the information. Interactive lectures are suggested as a means of overcoming the disadvantages of regular lectures. AIMS The present study was conducted to pilot various methods of making lectures interactive and to find the students' reactions to interactive lectures as compared to regular lectures. MATERIAL AND METHODS An entire batch of first year dental students (n = 78) was exposed to both interactive and regular lectures for the cardiovascular system in physiology. Among the total number of 12 lectures, alternate lectures were conducted in an interactive style. At the end of the 12 lecture series, students' opinions were obtained using a structured feedback evaluation questionnaire, consisting of five statements, on a five point Likert scale. Statistical Analysis was done using SPSS software, version 15. RESULTS Interactive lectures were found to be more useful than regular lectures by 92% of the students. Significantly more number of students agreed or strongly agreed that interactive lectures kept them attentive, created interest, overcame monotony, motivated them for self learning and provided well defined learning than regular lectures. Among the different techniques which were used, the students preferred use of video clippings (58.1%), followed by each-one-teach-one. RESULTS of the present study support the use of interactive lectures for ensuring increased interest and attention of students during lectures. CONCLUSION Interactive lectures were more accepted and considered to be more useful than regular lectures by the students.