Abstract:

Background:
Medical Imaging and Radiotherapy (MIR) education is challenging due to the complexity and variety of clinical scenarios which require the acquisition of knowledge and development of interpersonal, systemic and instrumental competencies in a safe and controlled environment.
Teaching and learning (T&L) methodologies that promote the application of theoretical concepts to practical MIR procedures, initially in controlled simulation contexts (between peers and in phantoms) and later in patients, are approaches of active and experiential T&L strategies. These strategies require several medical imaging equipment as well as information and communication systems and allow a gradual development of skills throughout the education process, promoting safety when students start to perform procedures on real patients. Furthermore, T&L strategies that promote the involvement of the students in their own formative process, developing a reflective capacity over their performance and progress over time, become more and more critical for the success of education.
The goals of this work are to report the active and experiential T&L strategies applied in MIR programme at the School of Health Sciences of the University of Aveiro (ESSUA) and to evaluate how the students perceive and value these strategies.

Methods:
A survey of the T&L process, as defined by the teachers in each of the Curricular Units (CU) of the MIR programme, was done, identifying active learning strategies (e.g., role-play, case study analysis, computer games) as well as the resources that facilitate experiential learning (e.g., phantoms, medical imaging equipment, simulation centre, image post-processing workstations).
The perception of the identified T&L strategies by the students was evaluated using a questionnaire regarding active and experiential learning with 3 multiple-choice and 38 five-points Likert scale questions, delivered to all the MIR students matriculated in the academic year 2018/19.

Results:
A total of 61 students (62% of the universe of MIR students, 46 female, 15 male, aged 21.20 ± 3.79 years old), homogeneously distributed over the four curricular years, answered the proposed questionnaire.
The students identified, among all, the MIR specific CU as those in which active and experiential T&L strategies are applied. The use of workstations, role-play and case study analysis were pointed out as the most frequently used active T&L strategies.
In the development of clinical practice skills and abilities, students highly value (median 5) simulation scenarios and hospital setting classes while value (median 4) the use of workstations, role play and case study analysis.
86.2% of the questions that evaluated student’s perception of the experiential learning strategies received high scores (72.4% with a median of 4; 13.8% with a median of 5). Answers pointed out an equilibrium between expositive classes and active/experiential learning activities with student’s engagement into the competencies acquisition. No significant statistical differences were found among students answers of different curricular years.

Conclusions:
The MIR students perceive that T&L methodologies, which reinforce active participation in their own education, are valuable resources in the acquisition of competencies for clinical practice. Since the early stages of the MIR programme, the students get and feel involved in learning clinical scenarios through active and experiential T&L strategies.

Keywords:

Active learning, Experiential learning, Medical Imaging and Radiotherapy, Education, Radiography.