CAN WE START WITH BIOPHYSICS AT THE SAME POINT FOR ALL STUDENTS?

Introduction:
Biophysics is included in first semester of general medicine study at Faculty of medicine Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia (FM CU). There is no doubt about the requirement of equal final knowledge in Slovak and in English study program. Does it mean that the extent and content should be equal in both language variants of study, too? What are the starting points for those students? Is it appropriate to start with all students at the same level and teach them the same way?

Material and methods:
The research was realised in academic year 2015/16 with totally 336 first-year general medicine students studying in Slovak and 166 studying in English at FM CU. The written questionnaire and the introductory test were administered at the very beginning of the academic year. The questionnaire contained 8 questions focused on student’s former study of physics. The introductory test consisted of two parts – six open-ended factual questions focused on basic physical principles and laws used in medicine and six conceptual questions connected to the same physics areas. Student’s answers were qualitatively categorised and described using basic statistical characteristics.

Results:
FM CU students studying in Slovak graduated mostly at general upper secondary schools (95.2%) in Slovakia (98.2%). They took part in 2.8 +- 2.0 hours of physics education per week in summary of last two years of upper secondary study, 59.5% performed laboratory measurements and 48.8% performed measurement protocols as a part of their former physics education. Only 2.4% graduated in physics. Approximately one half started to study at FM CU immediately after high school graduation.
Students studying in Slovak scored in factual questions of introductory test in average 16%, the maximal score was 53%, the lowest score 0% was performed totally by 9 students (4.7%). In the concept inventory part of the introductory test they succeeded in 2.1 of 6 tasks, 9.4% of Slovak students scored zero in this part.
FM CU students studying in English graduated mostly at general upper secondary schools (96.9%) in 12 countries: mostly in Germany (31.9%), Poland (28.3%) and Greece (12.7%). They took part in 2.9 +- 4.2 hours of physics education per week in summary of last two years of upper secondary study in average (students from Greece took part in 8.5 hours). One third performed laboratory measurements and one quarter performed measurement protocols. Totally 25.3% graduated in physics. Approximately one third started to study at FM CU immediately after high school graduation.
Students studying in English scored in factual questions of introductory test in average 7%, the maximal score was 57%, the lowest score 0% was performed totally by 35 students (22.4%). In the concept inventory part of the introductory test they succeeded in 1.2 of 6 tasks, 26.3% of students scored zero in this part.

Conclusion:
There is a significant difference between students studying general medicine at FM CU in Slovak and in English. Furthermore the group of students studying in English is very diversified. It is required to reflect these differences in teaching to enable students to achieve desired knowledge and skills.

Acknowledgements:
This work was supported by KEGA 020UK-4/2014 „Innovation in the content, forms and methods of practical exercises of Biophysics and Medical Biophysics to the study of Medicine and Biomedical Physics”.