Abstract:

Introduction and Objectives:
A presentation of new educational methods (communicative skills based method, Payton method, PBL, Academic Controversy, jigsaw and sandwich method) was organized for students and teachers of School of Medicine in Mostar in 2006. After the presentation, a questionnaire was distributed to be filled in by the students and teachers.
The objective of the study was to identify students’ and teachers’ attitude towards traditional (mainly didactic lectures) and new educational methods and to find out solution in case of negative attitude.
Method: The questionnaire was anonymous and asked about students' and teachers' satisfaction with the actual, traditional educational methods, and their wishes to introduce new educational methods.
Results: Hundred and eighty five students and 46 teachers were included in the study. Ninety-nine students (53%) were satisfied with the present way of education, 29 (16%) were undecided, and 57 (31%) were unsatisfied. Ninety-nine students (53%) supported implementation of new educational methods, 47 (25%) were undecided, and 39 (21%) did not agree.
Twenty-nine teachers (63%) were satisfied with the present way of education, 5 (11%) were undecided, and 12 (26%) were unsatisfied. Fifteen (33%) teachers supported the implementation of new methods, 21 (45%) were undecided, and 10 (22%) did not agree.
Discussion: According to the results of the survey, majority of students and teachers prefer status quo, and, moreover, only 1/3 of teachers supported implementation of new educational methods. Based on the results of this survey, implementation of the new educational methods was postponed for the following two years. As the management of School of Medicine in Mostar was well aware of the fact that new educational methods help in teaching students fundamental principles of critical thinking and life-long learning, a consensus was made that implementation of new methods should be done by any available means. This academic year (2008/2009), after a discussion by the Medical School Council, a new course “Modern educational methods” has been introduced to the doctoral program and future teachers will be educated about new forms of education. As the first phase, a new transitional method named „Contradiction with evidence based conclusion“ will be practiced in a workshop session. The proposed new method is not so radical as new educational methods, because it is a combination of the old, traditional presentation done by a teacher, and new methods centered on students. This transitional method has 7 steps. In the first step a teacher presents the first topic. After that in the second step, the teacher presents the second topic which is completely contradictory to the first topic. In the third step, the teacher confronts first with the second topic with a surprising effect. The fourth step is a break that lasts for three days. After the break, students collect (fifth step), and analyze the evidence (sixth step). In the final, the seventh step, students make conclusions based on the evidence (synthesis). After this transitional method other, previously mentioned new educational methods will be introduced. Finally, a new survey will be conducted, and its results compared with the results of the first survey. Improvements and obstacles will be noted and published in regional journals.