Perceptions of Medical students on “Timing of theory classes”

Background and Objectives: Most research has found that‘timing of classes’ play a significant part in studentachievement. When students were taught at times matchingtheir preferences, scores were significantly higher onachievement tests. If time is viewed as a resource and can beinfluenced to support high quality instruction, preferred time-ofday is much more likely to result in improved learning.Currently, medical schools are not set up to match everystudent’s perception on ‘timing of the class’. Therefore, there isa need for research on ‘timing of the theory class’ for medicalstudents.Materials and Methods: A cross sectional observational studywas conducted and perceptions of students belonging toMBBS stream from first semester to seventh semester wereconsidered for our study. Structured questionnaire was used inthe format of five-point Likert scale for every statementregarding the timing of theory classes, dissection hours, postlunch theory classes, interactive sessions, audio-visual aidsand experience of teaching faculty. Results were analyzed withthe help of MS office Excel and SPSS software version 20. Wehave compared the perceptions of medical students on fivepoint Likert scale on each question and the statisticalsignificance was calculated by Chi Square test.Results: Our study included a total of 505 medical studentsacross the semesters in MBBS stream. 33.1% of the studentsagreed to come for the theory class at 8° clock, across allsemesters and 34.1% of first semester students agreed tocome for 8° clock theory class when compared to 43% in 3rdSemester, 23.7% in 5th semester and 30.2% in 7th semesterstudents. In our study 50.8% of students from first semesterdisagreed to schedule ‘dissection classes’, of anatomy in thefirst hours of the day and 42.8% of students perceived thatattention span was good in the morning class. 34.1% of thefirst semester students perceived that ‘the quality of theteacher’ makes the class more interesting irrespective of timeof the day.Conclusion: Medical students perceive differently on ‘thetiming of theory classes’ across the semesters. Our studyprovides insights into student’s perceptions regarding lack ofattention during classes; which may be useful in identifyingtheir expectations and to plan theory classes in the curriculum.