Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Small Group Discussions over Didactic Lecture in Neurophysiology among First Year Medical Students

Background and Objectives: Medical education continually seeks to optimize teaching methods to enhance learning outcomes. Students were heavily bombarded with many theory and practical classes. The objective of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of small group discussions versus traditional didactic lectures in neurophysiology among first-year medical students. Methods: 150 first-year medical students were recruited to participate in this study. The students were randomly divided into two groups of A and B of strength seventy-five in each group. “Physiology of Pain” was the topic selected. The topic was initially covered in a one-hour lecture session. Then both Group A and Group B underwent a pre-test using multiple-choice questions. Group B was further divided into five subgroups with one facilitator for each group. Group B students were engaged in interactive small group discussion sessions while Group A continued with didactic lectures as a whole group. Later, post test was conducted for both groups with the same MCQs to assess the understanding of concepts. Then feedback was taken by giving them a qualitative questionnaire to gauge student perception of the effectiveness towards SGD. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25 software. Results: The pre-test and post-test scores of Group A and Group B were compared. The post-test scores of Group A were compared to those of Group B. There was a significant improvement with post-test score in Group B, when compared with post-test score in Group A. Students had a favorable perception of small group discussion sessions. Conclusion: The study suggests that small group discussions may enhance immediate understanding and retention of neurophysiology concepts compared to didactic lectures among first-year medical students. These findings emphasize how interactive and collaborative learning methods can potentially benefit medical education.