The good lecture.

Postgraduate medical education often relies on the traditional lecture model with low knowledge retention rates of 5-20%. Cognitive overload from excessive information during lectures diminishes learning efficacy. To optimise learning, evidence suggests prioritising active engagement, streamlining visual aids, introducing clinical scenarios, and incorporating audience response systems may further enhance retention and comprehension. In conclusion, the traditional lecture must evolve into more interactive and engaging modalities to facilitate increased participant long-term learning as summarised in this review.

Using Creativity as an Educational Tool in Veterinary Surgery: Students' Perceptions and Surgical Performance.

With the aim of improving students' ability to handle the complexity of surgery, we introduced a creative assignment in a veterinary surgical course. We hypothesized that by using this active, inductive educational method, reflection, creativity and self-efficacy in student novice surgeons could be improved. During a companion animal surgical course an intervention group was investigated against a control group. Twenty-nine fourth-year students were instructed in ovariohysterectomy by classical lectures, while 23 fourth-year students were provided with creative materials and assigned to consider and illustrate how to perform the procedure themselves. Surgical performance was assessed for both groups using a modified Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS) while performing a simulated ovariohysterectomy. Furthermore, both groups were investigated with respect to how they would handle a specific hypothetical surgical complication. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 intervention-group students and were analyzed using thematic analysis. The intervention group showed a significantly better performance and needed significantly less help with the surgical complication than the control group students. Data from interviews furthermore demonstrated that students believed the creative intervention produced increased reflection, more creative initiatives, and a feeling of security before surgery. Our study results thus indicate that an educational tool which stimulates creative thinking can promote reflection, creativity, and self-efficacy in novice surgeons without compromising surgical performance.

Concerted Creativity in the Digital Age: How do we Crack the Code ?

The purpose of the present article is to contribute to the development of a socio-material, situated conceptualization of creativity, in exploring music making as it becomes meaningful in performative emergence processes of the digital age. It uses the creative practices of musicians to analyse and discuss the qualities of 'digital materials' in a creative setting, today very often playing a critical role in the production and performance of music. Methodologically, the analysis is based on interviews with professional musicians performing at Roskilde Festival and observations inspired by the autoethnographic approach. The study concludes that creative musical emergence in performance situations of the digital age depends on an openness towards a fragility, imperilling the situation and 'cracking' the digital materiality.

Veterinary Students' Recollection Methods for Surgical Procedures: A Qualitative Study.

When veterinary students face their first live animal surgeries, their level of anxiety is generally high and this can affect their ability to recall the procedure they are about to undertake. Multimodal teaching methods have previously been shown to enhance learning and facilitate recall; however, student preferences for recollection methods when translating theory into practice have not been documented. The aim of this study was to investigate veterinary students' experience with recollection of a surgical procedure they were about to perform after using multiple methods for preparation. From a group of 171 veterinary students enrolled in a basic surgery course, 26 students were randomly selected to participate in semi-structured interviews. Results showed that 58% of the students used a visual, dynamic method of recollection, mentally visualizing the video they had watched as part of their multimodal preparation. A mental recipe was used by 15%, whereas 12% mentally visualized their own notes. The study provides new information regarding veterinary students' methods of recollection of surgical procedures and indicates that in Danish veterinary students, a visual dynamic method is the most commonly used. This is relevant information in the current educational situation, which uses an array of educational tools, and it stresses the importance of supporting the traditional surgical teaching methods with high-quality instructional videos.

Emotions in veterinary surgical students: a qualitative study.

A surgical educational environment is potentially stressful and can negatively affect students' learning. The aim of the present study was to investigate the emotions experienced by veterinary students in relation to their first encounter with live-animal surgery and to identify possible sources of positive and negative emotions, respectively. During a Basic Surgical Skills course, 155 veterinary fourth-year students completed a survey. Of these, 26 students additionally participated in individual semi-structured interviews. The results of the study show that students often experienced a combination of emotions; 63% of students experienced negative emotions, while 58% experienced positive ones. In addition, 61% of students reported feeling excited or tense. Students' statements reveal that anxiety is perceived as counterproductive to learning, while excitement seems to enhance students' focus and engagement. Our study identified the most common sources of positive and negative emotions to be "being able to prepare well" and "lack of self-confidence," respectively. Our findings suggest that there are factors that we can influence in the surgical learning environment to minimize negative emotions and enhance positive emotions and engagement, thereby improving students' learning.

Anxiety in veterinary surgical students: a quantitative study.

The surgical educational environment is potentially stressful and this can negatively affect students' learning. The aim of this study was to investigate whether veterinary students' level of anxiety is higher in a surgical course than in a non-surgical course and if pre-surgical training in a Surgical Skills Lab (SSL) has an anxiety reducing effect. Investigations were carried out as a comparative study and a parallel group study. Potential participants were fourth-year veterinary students who attended a surgical course (Basic Surgical Skills) and a non-surgical course (Clinical Examination Skills); both courses were offered in multiple classes (with a total of 171 students in 2009 and 156 students in 2010). All classes in 2009 participated in the SSL stage of the Basic Surgical Skills course before performing live-animal surgery, and one class (28 students) in 2010 did not. Two validated anxiety questionnaires (Spielberger's state-trait anxiety inventory and Cox and Kenardy's performance anxiety questionnaire) were used. Anxiety levels were measured before the non-surgical course (111 students from 2009) and before live-animal surgery during the surgical course (153 students from 2009 and 28 students from 2010). Our results show that anxiety levels in veterinary students are significantly higher in a surgical course than in a non-surgical course (p<.001), and that practicing in a SSL helps reduce anxiety before live-animal surgery (p<.005).