Determining Educational Objectives and Evaluating Them in Department of Anatomy in Isfahan School of Medicine

Introduction: Educational objectives are the basic parts of educational programs, which guarantee achievement to the goals. Nowadays, there are no clearly defined educational objectives in course of general medicine, which causes the students to feel inefficiency and lose their motivation. This study has tried to define educational objectives and evaluate them as an effective step towards promotion of medical basic science education. Methods: This is a descriptive analytical study. At first six teams including vice chancellor for education, department faculty members and experts of medical education were formed .Next, the educational objectives in course of limb anatomy, head and neck anatomy, anatomy of trunk, neuroanatomy, embryology and histology were defined in several sessions. Then, a 13-closed item questionnaire (in Likert scale, completely agree to absolutely disagree) was designed in order to determine students’ viewpoints regarding defined educational objectives. Moreover, after that its validity and reliability were confirmed, it was handed out to those students who had already passed the course .From 300 distributed questionnaires, 207 were filled and returned by the students. Data were analyzed through SPSS 16. In next step, levels of objectives- directed teaching process and goal achievement were checked by learning objective questionnaire (LOQ) filled by 23 students attending the course actively. Finally, the percentage of teachers’ attention to the goals of each course was determined. Results: After several sessions, 165 objectives in anatomy, 215 objectives in head and neck anatomy, 222 objectives in anatomy of trunk, 303 objectives in neuroanatomy, 250 objectives in embryology and 394 objectives in histology were designed. These objectives were converted to software sources, and after consultation with experts and a final revision given to students. The survey showed 78% of students used these objectives s in their studying within semester and 67% stated that having the goals helped them use better references. Analysis of LOQ questionnaires showed that in most of the courses, the defined objectives s had been followed accompanied with level of education and related reference in teachers’ teaching. Conclusion: Preparation and designing educational easily available objectives and can be modified may be a basic step in promotion of medical basic science education. Consideration of these objectives in trend of medical students’ education is an important and inevitable issue.