Nutjaree Pholwan . Opinions of medical teachers, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, about research on medical education. (). Chulalongkorn University. : , 2002.
Opinions of medical teachers, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, about research on medical education
Abstract:
Objective : This study is aimed to determine opinions of medical teachers of the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, about research on medical education.Design: Descriptive study.Methods: A questionnaire was constructed and distributed to 375 instructors of the Faculty Of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University in February 2002. They returned 161 Questionnaires (42.93%) by the end of the month. The data were analyzed by SPSS for Windows version 8.0 and presented in frequency and percentage.Results: Among the medical teachers, 100 were male (62.11%) and 61 female (37.89%).There were 42 instructors (26.09%) 43 assistant professors (26.71%), 65 associates professors (40.37%) and 11 professors (6.83%). The 44 (27.33%) medical teachers were from pre-clinic; 116 (72.05%) from clinic; and 1 (0.62%) did not identify themselves. 47 (29.19%) of the medical teachers used to read journals on medical education such as Academic Medicine and Medical Education; and 88 (54.66%) of the medical teachers thought that research on medical education is a kind of research on medical science. Most of them (95.65%) said that research on medical education is necessary for Thailand because the results can be applied to improve both the teaching and learning processes and curriculum development. When asked who should run the research, 108 (67.08%) of the medical teachers suggested those who are interested in medical education. The main obstruction is that medical teachers themselves are not interested to do the research. Given that the research is a part of academic promotion in the faculty, the number of research papers will surely increase. One of the best ways to promote research on medical education is to count it as workload legible for academic promotion. Other alternatives are namely: providing training course on research on medical education and increasing the reward.Conclusion: Most medical teachers of the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University thought that research on medical education is valuable for both the improvement of teachingand learning processes as well as curriculum development. Another possibility that promotes research on medical education is to count it as workload and a factor influencing academic promotion. Since the number of medical teachers who returned the questionnaire were only 43%, the result cannot be used to represent the opinion of the whole body of medical teachers of the Faculty. However, the research should be taken as a pilot study, a complete study should be carried out again in the future.