PMID- 19573195
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20100121
LR  - 20090703
IS  - 1365-2923 (Electronic)
IS  - 0308-0110 (Linking)
VI  - 43
IP  - 7
DP  - 2009 Jul
TI  - Impact on knowledge acquisition of the transition from a conventional to an 
      integrated contextual medical curriculum.
PG  - 704-13
LID - 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03397.x [doi]
AB  - CONTEXT: This study set out to test the hypotheses that after the implementation 
      of an integrated contextual medical curriculum (ICMC), ICMC students would attain 
      higher levels of knowledge in both the basic and clinical sciences at an earlier 
      stage than conventional medical curriculum (CMC) students, that ICMC students 
      would perform significantly better on knowledge tests at the end of their 
      education and, finally, that ICMC students would show a more linear acquisition 
      of knowledge in the basic and clinical sciences. METHODS: We drew upon the Dutch 
      Inter-University Progress Test (PT) to measure impact on knowledge acquisition 
      and compared PT scores of 393 CMC students with scores of 1028 ICMC students 
      (Years 2-6) in a cross-sectional design. We also compared the scores of 112 CMC 
      students with those of 197 ICMC students in Years 3-6 in a longitudinal design. 
      RESULTS: As expected, ICMC students showed a steeper learning curve in both the 
      basic and clinical sciences: at the end of their training students had attained 
      higher levels of knowledge in both domains. The learning curve pertaining to the 
      clinical sciences was almost linear, whereas that for the basic sciences showed a 
      sharper rise, indicating a continuing growth of knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: The 
      differential impact on knowledge acquisition of conventional and innovative 
      curricula has seldom been studied in a longitudinal and cross-sectional design. 
      This study confirmed our assumptions about the potential of an integrated 
      contextual curriculum. The differences observed in ICMC students were attributed 
      to the stronger emphasis on clinically relevant basic sciences in the early years 
      of the ICMC and to the stronger integration of basic and clinical sciences in the 
      ICMC.
FAU - Van der Veken, Jos
AU  - Van der Veken J
AD  - Office of Educational Quality Assurance, Department of Educational Affairs, Ghent 
      University, Ghent, Belgium. jos.vanderveken@ugent.be
FAU - Valcke, Martin
AU  - Valcke M
FAU - De Maeseneer, Jan
AU  - De Maeseneer J
FAU - Schuwirth, Lambert
AU  - Schuwirth L
FAU - Derese, Anselm
AU  - Derese A
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PL  - England
TA  - Med Educ
JT  - Medical education
JID - 7605655
SB  - IM
MH  - Belgium
MH  - Clinical Competence/*standards
MH  - Curriculum
MH  - Education, Medical, Undergraduate/*methods/standards
MH  - Problem-Based Learning/*methods
MH  - Program Evaluation
MH  - Students, Medical/*psychology
EDAT- 2009/07/04 09:00
MHDA- 2010/01/22 06:00
CRDT- 2009/07/04 09:00
PHST- 2009/07/04 09:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2009/07/04 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2010/01/22 06:00 [medline]
AID - MED3397 [pii]
AID - 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03397.x [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Med Educ. 2009 Jul;43(7):704-13. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03397.x.