Abstract

Traditional teaching method of pathology laboratory course during the preclinical year has been one of the major concerns by its less active student participation, overemphasis of morphological details with little opportunity on clinical correlation and poor integration with lecture in most of undergraduate programs. Furthermore, increased number of student enrollment and shortage of faculty have accelerated the reduction of existing limited efficiency by means of achieving the course objective. The author introduced an easily accessible format by application of case-oriented small group teaching method based on the policy of no additional curricular revision or crucial modification of present didactic pathology instruction. Carefully selected cases of 5 to 6 with clinical summary and well controlled questionnaires were supplied with microslide sets for small group discussion, and each student group was assigned to answer a series of questions on the case at the whole class plenary session. Development of appropriate questionnaires was crucially critical to determine the group activity so that the best answer should be possible only after careful observation of microslides and with close referring to available handout or textbook in the areas not only of morphological alterations but also no etiology, pathogenesis, correlation with clinical features and interpretation of laboratory data. plenary discussion was scheduled at the end of each course, during which faculty's comment on the cases with Kodachrome transparency (of microphotography) was supplemented. Immediate feedback on two occasions of experiment supported the active student interaction in learding process, and enhanced the synchronization of cognitive content in lecture-laboratory courses along with confidence on self-directed learning. It also stressed the necessity of further improvement in faculty's questioning and answering skill. The program was also less expensive, saved faculty time, and enabled to promote the bridging effort between the basic and clinical sciences as expected.