Assessing the Viewpoint of the Professors about Teaching a Course by Several Lecturers in Babol University of Medical Sciences

Background & Objective: Since one of the common methods of medical sciences teaching is teaching by several lecturers, the present study aimed to evaluate the viewpoints of medical science professors on this type of teaching. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical research was performed on professors of Babol University of Medical Sciences in 2013. Subjects were selected using convenience sampling, and data were collected using a 14-item researcher-made questionnaire. In addition, data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: From a total of 41 professors, about 33 cases (80.4%) had the experience of teaching a course by several lecturers in the previous or current semester. In total, 65.9% of professors believed that this type of teaching increased the diversity and attractiveness of the course and about half of them reported that there was better compliance with the headlines. On the other hand, most of these individuals believed that teaching a course by several lecturers was associated with an unnecessary increase in volume of the course content (68.3%), as well as a decrease in the time required for student assessment (51.2%) and the time needed for establishing relationships between professors and students (46.3%). However, statistical tests showed no significant differences in results in terms of gender and academic rank of professors. Conclusion: According to the results of the study, about half of the professors opposed to applying the method of teaching by several lecturers or no comments on this technique. However, the other half of the professors had a positive attitude toward this type of teaching. Therefore, considering some of the positive aspects of teaching by several lecturers, it is not possible to provide a definitive opinion about the method and more extensive studies are required in this regard.