System of procedures for the preparation of general training subjects in medical education

Sistema de procedimientos para la preparación de asignaturas de formación general en la educación médica

Tomás Alberto Isaac Quesada¹, Elena Mármol Sosa², Lizenia Zulueta Cuba³

¹ Ciego de Ávila University of Medical Sciences. Cuba. E-mail: tomas@ucm.cav.sld.cu
² Ciego de Ávila University of Medical Sciences. Cuba. E-mail: emarmol@ucm.cav.sld.cu
³ Ciego de Ávila University of Medical Sciences. Cuba. E-mail: lizeniazc@sma.unica.cu

ABSTRACT

This article is in addition to the efforts to perfect one of the processes that in Cuban higher medical education is in permanent validation: the preparation of general training subjects. In this direction a system of procedures was proposed, whose integrating synthesis derives from a new method for self-preparation of the teacher, a determinant variable in the achievement of a correct conception in the preparation of the subject. This result has been socialized in methodological activities at the discipline, career and faculty level, and can contribute to the solution of a remarkably general and pressing problem.

MeSH: subject, education, continuing,education, medical.

RESUMEN

El presente artículo se suma a los esfuerzos encaminados a perfeccionar uno de los procesos que en la educación médica superior cubana se encuentra en permanente validación: la preparación de las asignaturas de formación general. En tal dirección se propuso un sistema de procedimientos, cuya síntesis integradora deriva en un nuevo método para la autopreparación del docente, variable determinante en el logro de una concepción acertada en la preparación de la asignatura. Este resultado se ha venido socializando en actividades metodológicas a nivel de disciplina, carrera y facultad, y puede contribuir a la solución de un problema notablemente general y acuciante.

DeCS: asignatura, educación continua, educación médica.

In higher medical education, teachers carry out methodological actions so that students be able to appropriate the cognitive, instrumental and axiological elements conceived in the programs. Generally, form and content are very well defined. Since 2007, in the institutions of higher education in Cuba, we have been working on the Regulation for Teaching and Methodological Work in Higher Education¹, where the preparation of the subject is referenced, which has been revitalized in the introduction of the generation of study Plan D. However, it is still necessary to ask some questions: what aspects to take into account when preparing the subject? The above points to a process that constitutes a determinant variable in function of carrying out its adequate preparation: the self-preparation of the teacher.

Taking into account the difficulties that still exist in students and professors in the general training subjects, regarding the interdisciplinary integration of the content and its application to new situations, the teacher self-preparation to teach contents from an integrative conception, and other deficiencies in the application of the theoretical principle of systematization and the selectivity of contents, the authors intend to socialize a system of methodological procedures that, from the perfection of the self-preparation of the teacher, make feasible the preparation of the subject.

The eight constituents of the proposal and the actions to be developed are detailed below:

Procedure I.

Study of the main normative and methodological documents of the career.

Rationale: the teaching-learning process and the methodological work that precedes it have, among others, the legal and methodological dimensions.² The teacher needs to know the set of existing regulations in relation to the work in his subject, as well as the elements of theory and methodology of teaching and learning, higher education in general and the subject in particular.

Actions:

• Analyze the model of the career professional.
• Analyze the program of the discipline and of each particular subject.
• Select and study the elements of higher education didactics that are required to approach the different subjects.

Procedure II.

Deepening in the study of the program of the subject.

Rationale: this deepening is part of its preparation process. This prevents negative tendencies in the hidden curriculum from being manifested.³

Actions:

• Diagnose the students who will receive the program, taking care of their situation at the moment of starting to receive the subject (diachronic and synchronic approach).
  Study the resolutions: planning, and ministerial on the calendar for the school year, and other precisions and indications issued for this purpose.
• Analyze the objectives of the program.
• Read the foundation of the program to determine the place that occupies the subject in the discipline and the career.
• Evaluate the thematic plan and its derivation.
• Evaluate methodological suggestions for the treatment of contents.
• Value the instrumental and axiological set to be developed in each topic.
• To study the generalities of the evaluative system in order to expand its scope of application and its integrating nature.
• List the basic and complementary bibliography, adjusted to the specific situation of the career and the higher medical education center.
• Elaborate the P1 model or calendar plan.
• Submit proposals for improvement and contextualization to the program.

Procedure III.

Structuring of program themes into sub-themes.

Rationale: as a didactic-methodological norm, it must be ensured that each topic acquires an internal structure that allows going through the typologies of higher education classes that derive in the systematization of the content and the corresponding learning, reason why each subject must "close" a fragment of the content that in turn will be integrated to that of the whole program; But for this "closure" to occur, the topics go through the stages of familiarization, motivation (lectures), comprehension (independent work, consulting lessons, practical classes) and systematization (seminars, workshops). Consequently, the teacher should segment the topic into smaller content units, propitiatory of familiarization-motivation-comprehension, which will be integrated into the subject closing classes in the systematization, besides taking into account an independent treatment in respect to the teaching tasks to be developed.

Actions:

• Evaluate criteria of segmentation of the topic in subtopics.
• Formulate their goals.
• Specify the organizational forms to be used.
• Specify the content and purpose of each class in each subtopic.

Procedure IV.

Bibliographic analysis of the program.

Rationale: a comprehensive bibliographical work is required, which complements the lack of reference materials and expedites the localization of sources.

Actions:

• Assess the existing sources of reference materials, by categories: according to their presentation (printed or digital), their level of use: (basic or complementary) and who is targeted (students and / or teachers).
• Elaborate content and bibliographic cards.
• Elaborate supplementary or complementary teaching materials and place them in the library.
  

Procedure V.

Conception of teaching aids.

Justification: besides being one of the material supports of the teaching method, it is the only one that requires material (even financial) support, requires planning and organization.

Actions:

• Assess teaching methods for each topic and sub-theme.
• Assess the material, human and financial resources required for the development, purchase, rental of resources or additions for their use as teaching aids.
• Assess the need for loans, with emphasis on those teaching aids that need to be moved from other places.

Procedure VI.

Design of the independent work of the theme and sub-themes.

Rationale: the independent work is the most systemic element in the subject preparation process. Each class requires that students and teachers are prepared in the cognitive-instrumental because no content is absolutely new, but it´s based on a precedent one; Hence its importance for the preparation of the new content and/or consolidation of the already received. The teaching tasks should be integrating and synthesizing the contents from the sub-theme.

Actions:

• Define the teaching tasks for each class of the sub-theme; in correspondence with the precision of the content and objective.
• Specify the assessment indicators, according to the components of the subject content.

Procedure VII.

Projection of the (macro) assessment system and closing of the program of the subject.

Rationale: as part of the general study of the subject, special attention should be given to the longitudinal integration of partial and final evaluations, and to insist on its pedagogical (educate, instruct, develop), rather than social (certify, accredit knowledge , rank in hierarchical order).

Actions:

• Deriving from the teaching tasks of procedure VI those that have higher complexity, to be used as partial evaluations.
• Project final and special assessment instruments.

Procedure VIII.

Socialization.

Rationale: the teaching-methodological work involves the preparation of the subject to reach its true and most complete expression based on its collective vision, that is why the results of previous procedures must be presented to the discipline staff.

Actions:

• Present the preparation of the subject in the discipline staff.
• To readjust the elaborated conception, taking into account the elements arising from the evaluation of the teaching-methodological result presented.

The authors agree with others^4,5 regarding the significance of the methodological work, when they consider that the attention to these elements raises the quality of the teacher's self-preparation, and consequently, the profile of the graduate of higher medical education. The proposal supported by this article offers one more possibility to enrich the broad theoretical background which is available and put it into practice to validate its usefulness.

Declaration of interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

BIBLIOGRAHYCAL REFERENCES

1. Ministerio de Educación Superior. Reglamento para el Trabajo Docente y Metodológico en la Educación Superior. Resolución 210/07. La Habana: MES; 2007.

2. Ginoris O. Fundamentos didácticos de la educación superior. La Habana: Editorial Félix Varela; 2009.

3. Hourroutinier P. La educación superior cubana y su proceso formativo. La Habana: Ediciones Palco; 2014.

4. Caballero González JE. Apuntes históricos sobre el surgimiento y desarrollo del trabajo metodológico en la educación médica cubana. EDUMECENTRO [Internet]. 2013 [citado 8 Oct 2016];5(2):[aprox. 8 p.]. Disponible en: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2077-28742013000200022

5. Díaz Velis Martínez E, Cobas Vilches ME, Wong Orfila T. Labor metodológica y enfoque de sistema en la carrera de Medicina. Facultad de Medicina de Villa Clara. EDUMECENTRO [Internet]. 2009 [citado 8 Oct 2016];1(2):[aprox. 16 p.]. Disponible en: http://www.revedumecentro.sld.cu/index.php/edumc/article/view/33/71

Submitted: February 3, 2017.
Accepted: March 1, 2017.

Tomás Alberto Isaac Quesada.: Ciego de Ávila University of Medical Sciences. Cuba. E-mail: tomas@ucm.cav.sld.cu