HUMOR AS A TEACHING STRATEGY IN MEDICAL EDUCATION

Dr. Sheldon James Goudinho* (DO, DNB) and Dr. Jasmine Mary Jacob (MS)

ABSTRACT

HUMOUR AS A TEACHING STRATEGY IN MEDICAL EDUCATION. Introduction: Humour is a wonderful teaching aid for establishing a classroom atmosphere conducive to learning. When used in the right way, humour can gain attention, stimulate creative thinking and enhance memory of the learners, motivate students to learn, gain knowledge, attend class and promote learning outcomes; creating a positive student-instructor relationship. Objective: to explore the opportunities for humour in the college classroom. This study explores the advantages of humour as an educational aid in medical education teaching; identifying opportunities for incorporating humour and studying the impact on learning outcomes in the classroom. Materials and methods: A comparative study conducted in Dr Somervell memorial CSI medical college; Karakonam where 25 MBBS students ;in the 5th semester were included. The Pre-test, Post test and a questionnaire were the instruments for data collection. Pre-test and Post –Test assessed quantitatively how much each students had gained Knowledge, Attitude and Practices after the lecture class while the Questionnaire revealed each students learning Experience. Comparison of the pre-test and post-test revealed whether humour had made any significant impact in the gain of knowledge of the topic among the two groups. Comparison of the responses in the qualitative assessment questionnaire revealed learning experience. Results: There was a statistical difference found; the 95% Confidence Interval was found to be – 7.373 to – 6.489.P< 0.001 (Highly Significant).Conclusion: There was a significant positive impact on Learning Outcomes as well as Qualitative Learning Experience of the Learner when Humour was incorporated in the Lectures.

Keywords: Humor, Medical education, Teaching Learning.