ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY

ISLAMABAD

General Method of Teaching

 Name Sidra Nasreen

 Father Name Muhammad Ali
 Student ID 0000056750
 Course Code 8601
 Assignment 01
 Semester Autumn (B.Ed 1.5 years)
Question No. 1: Give answer to the following short questions.

(i) The personal and professional qualities of teachers.

(ii) What is a case method?

(iii) Define and compare active learning and cooperative learning.

(iv) What is lesson planning? Write down the five merits of lesson planning for the

teachers.

The personal and professional qualities of teachers

Personal qualities are what make a person unique, allow them to navigate a

new situation, make new friends and connections, or work through conflict or

tensions. Important personal qualities for English teachers include listening and being

a good listener, thoughtfulness, being personable, timeliness, and adaptability. An

ideal teacher is someone who has a combination of qualities, such as being very

knowledgeable on his subject, able to effectively manage his classroom, genuinely

enjoys teaching and dealing with students, has high expectations for his students,

good communication skills and an engaging teaching style. If a candidate has good

interpersonal skills, he or she is likely to be a better fit for an organization. And when

two candidates with similar professional qualities interview for a job, the one with a

more fitting personality is likely to get the job.

Some qualities of a good teacher include skills in communication, listening,

collaboration, adaptability, empathy and patience. Other characteristics of effective

teaching include an engaging classroom presence, value in real-world learning,

exchange of best practices and a lifelong love of learning.

I feel that to be a professional teacher it is necessary that you have patience.

Some children may take longer to understand certain subjects or pieces of information
and it is vital that you are patient and take the time to fully explain so that they

understand and learn from your teaching. During school, I found that in particular

subjects I would require the teacher to explain things in a little more depth before I

fully understood, and this would only help my learning if the teacher had the patience

to spend extra time on the same thing. Many teachers wouldn’t do this and I would

therefore struggle in their subjects. I feel that it is unacceptable for a teacher to act this

way. As a teacher it is your job to make sure that all pupils can work and learn to the

best of their ability, and without the patience to do so you are not fulfilling your role

as a professional teacher. In my opinion, a professional teacher would consider their

teaching style to make sure that it is meeting the needs of all learners, remembering

that everyone learns in different ways – visually, orally and kinesthetically.

Personally, I feel that empathy is a very important quality in being a

professional teacher. Being empathetic allows teachers to understand their pupils’

emotions and gives them the ability to relate to them. Pupils will originate from

various cultures and backgrounds and so teachers need to be able to understand each

individual’s situation as this will help the children to feel more comfortable to discuss

any problems which they might be having at home. I feel that integrity is an important

characteristic for a professional teacher to have. Integrity is the quality of honesty and

having strong moral principles and so it is necessary for the teacher to have these so

that the pupils can be educated to act in the same way. Pupils should see their teachers

as a figure to look up to and so integrity allows teachers to be a role model for their

pupils.

I have chosen these five qualities to be the most important from the list,

however I believe that all of the qualities listed are important and that they should

come naturally to a professional teacher.

Case method

Cases are narratives, situations, select data samplings, or statements that

present unresolved and provocative issues, situations, or questions (Indiana University

Teaching Handbook, 2005). The case method is a participatory, discussion-based way

of learning where students gain skills in critical thinking, communication, and group

dynamics. It is a type of problem-based learning. Often seen in the professional

schools of medicine, law, and business, the case method is now used successfully in

disciplines such as engineering, chemistry, education, and journalism. Students can

work through a case during class as a whole or in small groups.

In addition to the definition above, the case method of teaching (or learning):

Is a partnership between students and teacher as well as among students. Promotes

more effective contextual learning and long-term retention. Involves trust that

students will find the answers. Answers questions not only of “how” but “why.”

Provides students the opportunity to “walk around the problem” and to see varied

perspectives.

Bruner (1991) states that the case method:

Is effective: It employs active learning, involves self-discovery where the teacher

serves as facilitator.

Builds the capacity for critical thinking: It uses questioning skills as modeled by the

teacher and employs discussion and debates.

Exercises an administrative point of view: Students must develop a framework for

making decisions.

Models a learning environment: It offers an exchange and flow of ideas from one

person to another and achieves trust, respect, and risk-taking.

Models the process of inductive learning-from-experience: It is valuable in promoting

life-long learning. It also promotes more effective contextual learning and long-term

retention.

Mimics the real world: Decisions are sometimes based not on absolute values of right

and wrong, but on relative values and uncertainty.

Comparison of active learning and cooperative learning

Cooperative learning

Cooperative learning is a technique that allows students to learn from each

other and gain important interpersonal skills. Learn the definition of cooperative

learning and the benefits of this teaching technique in the classroom, explore how to

group students when using this technique, and discover strategies for developing

assignments using cooperative learning. 

There are many benefits that can result from using cooperative learning strategies.

Here are benefits you might notice after implementing cooperative learning tasks in

your classroom:

1. Cooperative learning is fun, so students enjoy it and are more motivated.

2. Cooperative learning is interactive, so students are engaged, active participants

in the learning.

3. Cooperative learning allows discussion and critical thinking, so students learn

more and remember what they've learned for a longer period of time.

4. Cooperative learning requires students to learn to work together, which is an

important skill for their futures.

Active learning

Active learning methods ask students to engage in their learning by

thinking, discussing, investigating, and creating. In class, students practice

 skills, solve problems, struggle with complex questions, make decisions,

propose solutions, and explain ideas in their own words through writing and

discussion. Timely feedback is critical to this learning process either from the

instructor or peer feedback from fellow students. Education research shows

that incorporating active learning strategies into university courses

significantly enhances student learning experiences.

Benefits of active learning

Opportunities to process course material through thinking, writing, talking,

and problem solving give students multiple avenues for learning. Applying new

knowledge helps students encode information, concepts, and skills in their memories

by connecting it with prior information, organizing knowledge, and strengthening

neural pathways Receiving frequent and immediate feedback helps students correct

misconceptions and develop a deeper understanding of course material. Working on

activities helps create personal connections with the material, which increases

students’ motivation to learn. Regular interaction with the instructor and peers around

shared activities and goals helps create a sense of community in the classroom.

Instructors may gain more insight into student thinking by observing and talking with

students as they work. Knowing how students understand the material helps

instructors target their teaching in future lessons.

(iv) What is lesson planning? Write down the five merits of lesson planning for

the teachers.

A lesson plan is the instructor’s road map of what students need to learn and

how it will be done effectively during the class time. Then, you can design

appropriate learning activities and develop strategies to obtain feedback on student

learning. Having a carefully constructed lesson plan for each 3-hour lesson allows you

to enter the classroom with more confidence and maximizes your chance of having a

meaningful learning experience with your students.

A successful lesson plan addresses and integrates three key components:

 Learning Objectives

 Learning activities

 Assessment to check for student understanding

A lesson plan provides you with a general outline of your teaching goals, learning

objectives, and means to accomplish them, and is by no means exhaustive. A

productive lesson is not one in which everything goes exactly as planned, but one in

which both students and instructor learn from each other.

 
 Question No. 2: Explain the factors of effective teaching

Students are the future of the nation and then stand at one pole of the

education system in which teachers are at the other pole. The process of learning-

teaching runs smoothly with the help of both of these poles. These two poles of the

education system make a perfect balance and take the system to another height.

Teachers work hard, collect information, and impart knowledge to students in the

process of teaching. There are certain direct and indirect factors that affect the

learning process or teaching. In the article, we will learn about the factors affecting

teaching.

The teaching process gets affected by various parameters such as teachers,

learners, and the environmental factors. These three factors make the whole process of

learning easy and smooth. Learning in a student’s life is very important as it builds the

base of their career professionally and personally.

The three factors affecting teaching are as:

 Learners Psychological /Individual Characteristic

 Teachers and Classroom supports

 Environment and other surrounding factors

Factors affecting teaching

Teacher

Teachers are the pillars for their students. They play the most important role in

their students’ life by providing support, boosting their confidence, guiding them in

the right direction, and of course teaching them. They are the facilitator of learning in

the learning-teaching process. The best teacher is one who is able to apply the best

teaching method to teach students and guide them towards a quality learning process.

The quality of a teacher derives from the various factors such as:
 Educational Qualification

Educational qualification of a teacher decides their knowledge. By getting a higher

degree in the teaching, a teacher will be able to impart knowledge to the students in

depth and of quality. On comparing the teachers who have M.ED or PhD degrees with

others who do not have, you will be able to differentiate the different ways of their

thinking and the ways of imparting knowledge to students.

Skills

Skills matter a lot. Sometimes a teacher with a lower degree of teaching has

better skills of teaching than a teacher with a higher degree of teaching. It is not sure

that teachers with higher degrees have the right instincts and can teach in a better way

than teachers with lower degrees. Teaching skills are decided on how teachers

connect to students, what teaching methods apply on students, how they explain the

concepts to students, and what their attitude towards students.

 Their communication skills should be effective and engaging.

 Selection of suitable teaching method

 Applying the right teaching aids.

 Their approach towards teaching students

 How they guide and monitor students.

Experience

Graduating in a degree of teaching is not that much tough as getting mastery in

experience. Experience holds an important place when you are teaching students.

Some aspirants acquire high qualifications which can make them qualified for

teaching but lacking in experience hamper their progress.

With high qualifications, teachers can get a better understanding of the different

topics or complex formulas but experience helps teachers to deal with the students

and prepare them for how to teach students.

Subject matter

There comes a time when teachers who do not have knowledge of a particular

subject are assigned to teach that subject. In such a situation, passion and motivation

to research about the topic and teach students help them. Subject matter does really

matter. However, the chances of assigning subjects which are not the forte of a

teacher are very rare.

The syllabus of the subject is formed by educationists and psychologists

keeping the mental and physical capabilities of students in mind. The important

subject matter related factors which influence teaching are the difficulty of the task,

length of the task, meaningfulness of the task, similarity of the task, organized

material, and life learning.

Learner

Physiological and psychological factors of learners are the factors affecting

teaching. Every individual studying in a class possesses different qualities and require

different teaching methods. It is necessary to take note of the intelligence of students,

ethnic groups of students, race, belief and socioeconomic status of the learners when

teaching in the classroom.

The interest of each student in the class is also different which depends on

aptitude, attitude, motivation, mental health and aspiration towards the goals of their

life. The maturity, age, motivation, previous learning, intelligence, mental health,

physical need, diet and nutrition, attention and interest, goal-setting and level of

aspiration are the factors affecting teaching related to learners.

 Environment

The factors affecting the environment of the teaching are as follows.

Support materials

Teachers have their support system which consists of tools that helps them to

improve their capacity of teaching. The different teaching aids help to analyze the

area in which students are not taking interest or under performing. This also helps

them to adopt effective strategies that teach students. Support materials in teaching

are effective tools for:

 Assessments and scores of students

 Teaching Strategies and lesson plans

 Standards and benchmark

 Effective use of traditional and modern tools

Instructional facilities

With the available teaching aids, teachers can cover a wide area of learning. It

has many benefits such as differentiating instruction, relieving anxiety, helping

learners to improve reading comprehension skills, illustrating or reinforcing a skill,

presenting information in an effective way.

Learning environment

Learning environment is where a student learns and a teacher teaches. The

classroom environment is the learning environment for students which plays an

important role in the learning process. Both students and teachers get affected by the

classroom environment. The environment for the learning is well maintained by active

participation in education, concentration of students, teachers’ focus on behavior of

students etc. The environment of learning must be positive.

Socio-economic factor
 The socio-economic background of students and teachers affect the learning

process in an indirect way. It shows differences in the thinking level of students and

teachers towards others. The economic factor of students sometimes gets dominated

by teachers and its impact on the teaching quality of the teachers.

Expectations

Expectation is a very common factor affecting teaching. It affects learners

and teachers as well. Every parent has some sort of expectation with their children as

they want their children to get quality education and they learn maximum when they

go to schools.

This puts a psychological impact on students and sometimes it results in stress

and impairments.

So, the parents should involve the students in the process of learning in such a way

that they ease their process instead of putting a burden on them. Also, teachers should

not be put under pressure of expectations.

The National Council of Educational Research and Training published the Core

Teaching Skills in 1982 which laid stress on the following teaching skills.

 Writing instructional objectives

 Organizing the content

 Creating set for introducing the lesson

 Introducing a lesson

 Structuring classroom questions

 Question delivery and its distribution

 Response management

 Explaining

 Illustrating with examples

 Using teaching aids

 Stimulus variation

 The pacing of the lesson

 Promoting pupil participation

 Use of blackboard

 Achieving closure of the lesson

 Giving assignments

 Evaluating the pupil’s progress

 Diagnosing pupil learning difficulties and taking remedial measures

 Management of the class

Micro Teaching

Micro-teaching implies micro-element which simplifies the complexities of

the teaching process. It concentrates on using specific teaching methods and offers

opportunities for practicing teaching under controlled conditions.

There are many factors affecting teaching which are based on teacher-student

relationship, socioeconomic conditions, policy and motivation of schools etc.

Question No. 3: What is Gagne's frame work for instructional development?

Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction

  Robert Gagne was an educational psychologist who created a nine step

process called the Events of Instruction. Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction model

helps trainers, educators, and instructional designers structure their training sessions.

The model is a systematic process that helps them develop strategies and create

activities for instructional classes. The nine events provide a framework for an

effective learning process. Each step addresses a form of communication that supports

the learning process. When each step is completed, learners are much more likely to
be engaged and to retain the information or skills that they are being taught. The steps

essentially give designers an outline or prototype to use prior to performing teaching

or training activities.

 Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction

1. Gaining attention (reception)

2. Informing learners of the objective (expectancy)

3. Stimulating recall of prior learning (retrieval)

4. Presenting the stimulus (selective perception)

5. Providing learning guidance (semantic encoding)

6. Eliciting performance (responding)

7. Providing feedback (reinforcement)

8. Assessing performance (retrieval)

9. Enhancing retention and transfer (generalization)

 The Conditions of Learning

The Conditions of Learning, Gagne identified the mental conditions for

learning.   These were based on the information processing model that focuses on the

cognitive events that occur when learners are presented with a stimulus. Gagne Nine

Events of Instruction are connected to and address the Conditions of Learning. Gagne

divides the conditions into two groups; internal and external. Internal conditions are

the already established learned capabilities of the learner. Basically, what the learner

knows prior to the instruction. External conditions deal with the stimuli that is

presented externally to the learner (e.g. instruction provided to the learner). These

Conditions of Learning are essential to Gagne’s Events of Instruction. Gagne’s model

allows instructional designers to consider the possible internal and external conditions

that have an effect on the learning process.

 Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction
 1. Gaining Attention (Reception)

Begin the learning session by gaining the attention of the learners. Ensure the learners

are motivated to learn and participate in activities by presenting a stimulus to gain

their attention. This can be accomplished by presenting the learners with an

introductory activity that engages the learner.

 Techniques for gaining learner’s attention include:

 Stimulate learners with novelty or surprise

 Pose thought-provoking questions

 Have learners pose questions to be answered by other learners

 Present an intriguing problem

 Present a new and interesting situation that provokes curiosity

 Present meaningful and relevant challenge

 2. Informing Learners of the Objective (Expectancy)

After gaining their attention, inform the learners of the learning objectives to help

them understand what they will be learning during the session. State what the learners

will be able to accomplish during the session and how they will be able to use the

knowledge in the future. This allows the learners to organize their thoughts on what

they will learn and help place them in the proper mind set.

 Techniques for stating the objectives include:

 Describe what they will be able to do at the completion of the session

 Describe required performance

 Describe criteria for standard performance

 Explain how their learning will benefit them

 3. Stimulating Recall of Prior Learning (Retrieval)

Help the learners make sense of new information by relating it to something

they already know or something they have already experienced. To accomplish this

present the learner with an experience or cue that stimulates their prior knowledge.

Make connections between what they are learning, and their previous learning. When

people learn something new, it is best to correlate the new information with related

information or topics they have learned in the past.

 Methods for stimulating recall include:

 Ask if they have any previous experiences with the topic

 Ask questions about previous experiences

 Ask about their understanding of previous concepts

 Give them an example of an experience similar to what they are learning

  4. Presenting the Stimulus (Selective Perception)

Present the learner with the new information using learning strategies to provide

effective and efficient instruction. Organize and chunk content in a meaningful way.

Provide explanations after demonstrations.

 Ways to present session content include:

 Organize your information in a logical and easy-to-understand manner.

 Chunk information

 Provide examples

 Utilize multiple delivery methods (e.g., video, demonstration, lecture, podcast,

group work)

 Use a variety of text, graphics, figures, pictures, sounds, simulations, etc. to

stimulate the senses

 Use a variety of approaches (such as visual cues, verbal instruction, and active

learning) to suit people with different learning styles / preferences.

5. Providing Learning Guidance (Semantic Encoding)

 Offer the learner guidance by providing coaching on how to learn the skill.

Give examples and advise of strategies to aid them in the learning content and of

resources available to them. Also, provide guidance using cues, hints, and/or prompts

to help them understand and remember what they are learning.

Ways to provide learning guidance include:

 Concept mapping for associations

 Mnemonics to cue and prompt learning

 Role playing for visualization of application

 Case studies for real world application

 Analogies to help knowledge construction

 Graphics to make visual associations

6. Eliciting Performance (Responding)

Let the learner do something with the newly acquired behavior, skills, or

knowledge. Provide them with practice activities to activate the learning process. This

activity allows the learner to internalize the new information (skills and knowledge)

and to ensure correct understanding and application of the knowledge/concepts.

 Ways to activate learner processing include:

 Have the learner do something with the newly acquired behavior

 Have the learn demonstrate practicing skills

 Have the learner apply knowledge to a scenario or case study

 Ask questions so that they can show their knowledge

 Ask the learner to demonstrate how to use it

 Have them complete a role playing exercise

 7. Providing Feedback (Reinforcement)

After the learner attempts to demonstrate their knowledge, provide immediate

feedback of learner’s performance to assess and facilitate learning. This is also a good

time to reinforce any important points. This stage helps reinforcement of a correct

answer, gives guidance as to the degree of correctness of the task, and/or provides

corrective feedback if the response or behavior is incorrect.

 Tips on providing feedback:

 Be positive

 Be objective

 Use first-hand observation

 Deliver focused and concise feedback

 Focus on areas the student can control

8. Assessing Performance (Retrieval)

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the instructional events, administer a test the

learner to determine if the expected learning outcomes have been achieved.

Performance should be based on previously stated objectives.

 Methods for assessing performance learning include:

 Written test

 Short questionnaires

 Short essays

 Oral questioning

 Other measurement tool to show that they’ve learned the material or skill

effectively

9. Enhancing Retention and Transfer (Generalization)

Give the learner resources that enhance retention and transfer of knowledge so

that they are able to internalize the new knowledge and enhance his or her expertise.

Repeated practice with effective feedback is the best way to ensure that people retain
information and use it effectively.

 Methods for helping learners internalize new knowledge include:

 Having them summarize content

 Having them generate examples

 Having them create mind maps / concept maps

 Having them create outlines

 Having them create job-aids

 Having them create other types of reference material

  

Question No. 4: How are objectives stated in behavioral terms?

A behavioral objective is a learning outcome stated in measurable terms,

which gives direction to the learner’s experience and becomes the basis for student

evaluation. Objectives may vary in several respects. They may be general or specific,

concrete or abstract, cognitive, affective, or psychomotor. Cognitive objectives

emphasize intellectual outcomes, such as knowledge, understanding, and thinking

skills. Affective objectives emphasize feeling and emotion, such as interests, values,

attitudes, appreciation, and methods of adjustment. Psychomotor objectives

emphasize motor skills, such as physical assessment skills and administration of

chemotherapy.

Points in writing behavioral objectives:

1. Begin each behavioral objective with a verb. The critical aspect of any

behavioral objective is the verb selected to indicate expected behavior from

learning activities.
 2. State each objective in terms of learner performance. A behavioral objective is

one that is considered to be observable and measurable. Behavior is generally

construed to be an action of an individual that can be seen, felt, or heard by

another person.

3. State each objective so that it includes only one general learning outcome.

Examples of objectives

At the graduate level of nursing education, it is expected that learning objectives will

be general, abstract, and cognitive or affective. Examples of appropriate objectives for

graduate students are as follows:

 Cognitive: Create an assessment tool based on a nursing theory for patients

experiencing pain.

 Cognitive: Evaluate the usefulness of nursing research in clinical practice.

 Affective: Accept professional responsibility for change in problem clinical

situations.

The levels are listed in increasing order of complexity, followed by verbs that

represent each level.

Knowledge: remembering previously learned facts.

Cite List Reproduce

Define Match Select

Identify Name State

Label Recognize

Comprehension: ability to understand or grasp the meaning of material.

Convert Extend Paraphrase

Describe Give examples Summarize

Estimate Illustrate Translate

 Explain Interpret

Application: ability to use previously learned material in new and concrete situations.

Apply Modify Relate

Computer Operate Show

Construct Predict Solve

Demonstrate Prepare Use

Discover Produce

Analysis: ability to break down material into its component parts so that its

organizational structure may be understood.

Analyze Differentiate Infer

Associate Discriminate Outline

Determine Distinguish Point out

Synthesis: ability to put parts together to form a new whole.

Combine Develop Plan

Rewrite Compile Devise

Propose Tell Compose

Integrate Rearrange Write

Create Modify Reorganize

Design Organize Revise

Evaluation: ability to judge the value of material for a given purpose; also, the ability

to make decisions.

Appraise Conclude Judge

Assess Contrast Weigh

Compare Evaluate
Examples

1. Knowledge

a. The student will be able to list all of Piaget's developmental states in the

correct order for an in-class exam.

b. The student will recall the four major food groups without error.

c. From memory, with 80 percent accuracy the student will match each United

States General with his most famous battle.

2. Comprehension

a. The student will be able to correctly describe the two components of

objectivity f or an in-class exam.

b. By the end of the semester, the student will summarize the main events of a

story in grammatically correct English.

3. Application

a. Given fractions not previously covered in class, the student will be able to

divide them with 85 percent accuracy for an in-class exam.

b. Given fractions not covered in class, the student will multiply them on paper

with 85 percent accuracy.

4. Analysis

Given a presidential speech, the student will be able to point out all of the

positions that attack a political opponent rather than the opponent's political

program for a homework assignment.

a. In a presidential speech, the student will be able to point out the positions

that attack a political opponent personally rather than the opponent's

political programs.

b. The student will describe the interrelationships among acts in a play.

5. Synthesis

a. The student will be able to design a study outside of class that addresses a

given problem. The experiment should contain the six components given in

class.

b. Given a short story, the student will write a different but plausible ending.

6. Evaluation

a. The student will be able to judge a paragraph's value according to the six

criteria for an out-of-class assignment.

b. Given a description of a country's economic system, the student will defend

it by basing arguments on principles of socialism.

Question No. 5: What are the different factors that influence student motivation?

Most of the factors evaluated in this study are easy to adopt or abandon.

Although the curriculum in the pre-clinical years is concerned with basic sciences,

most students thought that the introduction of some clinical information into lectures

would improve motivation and facilitate learning. The students thought that

motivation could be improved with the provision of clinical information to make the

basic science subjects more realistic and consequently facilitate learning.

Many faculty members use the conventional style of lecturing where students

are passive recipients. However, these students clearly favored student participation.

They believed that there was little enjoyment in the majority of lectures, partly

because of the lack of student participation. Indeed, many investigators have reported

that there is greater enthusiasm for learning on the part of students when the focus in

the classroom is changed from teacher-centered to student-centered.2–5 There are many

techniques of changing the traditional lecture into a more enjoyable interactive lecture

with greater student participation.6

 The majority of students considered the revision of a previous lecture a

promoter of learning. This is done to refresh students’ memory and stress basic

principles as well as forge a link to subsequent information, thereby facilitating

comprehension. This is, unfortunately, lacking in many of our lectures, but can be

done by asking questions to create an active learning environment which compels and

encourages students to read previous lectures.

A lot of our students have problems with the language as the teaching is in a

foreign language.7 This might explain why most of the students preferred the use of

some Arabic phrases in lectures. Interestingly, the frequency of females who favored

the use of Arabic phrases was less than males. However, the use of Arabic phrases

should clearly be limited to situations in which the tutor feels that the students are

unable to comprehend what is being taught.

Out of the three different audiovisuals usually used in teaching, the students

preferred the chalkboard. Using the chalkboard gave the students a good opportunity

to write lecture notes. Since the use of slides and overhead projectors tended to be

fast, the deficiency in English made it difficult for the students to take proper notes

when they were used. When these are used, students have little time to take notes,

continue to listen and keep pace with the information being delivered in the lecture.

Clear course objectives were not provided to the students by many of our

departments. Clear objectives that help to identify the course material and guide

learning were considered by the majority of students as motivation promoter.

Curriculum committees should ensure that every course has specific objectives, which

are made accessible to students. In addition to facilitating learning the availability of

specific objectives would make students aware of the scope of the course. The
objectives would also act as guidelines for tutors to cover the required material and

avoid unnecessary detail.

Assigning more than one reference text by the departments was seen as

motivation inhibitor by majority of second and third level students. Possible causes of

this include the lack of time. As students take four different lectures per day, the

deficiencies in their language makes reading a very time-consuming activity.

Our students preferred easy references and most of them depended mainly on

notes.The university policy prohibits the provision of lecture notes and handouts to

the students. The college administration believes that in addition to being good for

self-learning, reading textbooks is an important means of improving one's language.

Although students who regularly read improved their language, many complained that

they wasted a lot of time and got fewer marks than those who only read notes.

However, later in the clinical years many of them came to appreciate the worth of the

habit of regular reading.

Although tutors agree that teaching should be concentrated on core material,

many have the tendency to go into unnecessary detail. This could explain the feeling

of our students that our curriculum is overloaded. Selection of basic science material

based on clinical relevance would help not only in identifying the core curriculum but

also in avoiding unnecessary detail that overloads the curriculum.

Tutorials in our curriculum are designed to offer the tutor the opportunity to

revise the material covered in previous lectures with the students. Different methods

are used to achieve this objective. Our students considered all forms of tutorials

(distribution of written questions, posing questions in tutorial and revision of topics

by tutor) as promoters. However, they thought they derived the greatest benefit from

the tutorials when lecture material was reviewed.

 It is obvious from our results that scheduled quizzes are perceived as strong

promoters of learning. This is in agreement with a previous report that stated that

assessment had a marked effect on medical students’ learning. 9 On the other hand, a

majority of our students did not like unscheduled quizzes as many of them had not

developed the habit of studying regularly. They rather read intensively for

examinations, a habit acquired from their pre-university days.

As an administrative policy, taking attendance is a debatable issue. Our

students were positive about taking the roll. Interestingly, there was a gender

difference in the perception of the importance of attendance. As expected, the

sympathetic response to the needs of students by departments and the administration

was considered a strong promoter.

It is suggested that the teaching approach in the pre-clinical years should foster

horizontal integration and increase the number of tutorials based on clinical problems

in order to facilitate vertical integration.

Conclusion

Our students think that the tutor in the pre-clinical phase, could motivate them

more if he/she: provided clinical information, encouraged students participation,

revised previous lectures, used the necessary explanatory Arabic phrases, used the

chalk board, provided clear specific course objectives, adopted one easy reference,

concentrated on the core curriculum and avoided lecturing in the afternoon.