Iranian Journal of Medical Education

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Introduction: Attention to students’ major satisfaction and mental health is important in promoting their learning and academic achievement. This study aims to investigate the relationship between satisfaction with major, mental health and academic achievement among students in Arak University of Medical Sciences in 2012. Methods: In this descriptive-correlation study, relationship between satisfaction with major and mental health and academic achievement of 403 students in Arak University of Medical Sciences was assessed. Students were selected through stratified random sampling method from schools of Paramedics, Nursing and Medicine. Data were collected through the standard general health questionnaire (GHQ28) and a researcher-made questionnaire on major satisfaction. Data were analyzed using independent T-test and Spearman test. Results: Students’ mean score of satisfaction with their major was 61.16 ± 12.38 (out of 90) which was interpreted as about average. Their general health score was 26.36± 10.65 that showed a mild psychological distress. There was no significant relationship between major satisfaction and mental health and academic improvement (p=.22, r=-.061) but there was a significant negative relationship between academic achievement with satisfaction (p=0.024, r=-0.113) and mental health (p=0.001, r=-0.166). Conclusion: It is important that special attention be paid to the role of supervisors, student counseling centers, students’ academic achievement monitoring, identification and provision of the services needed for students at risk, and participation of their families.

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Introduction: Several studies have compared lecturing and group discussion and reported conflicting results. Due to the role of review studies in preparing reliable research evidence, this review study aimed to compare the effectiveness of lecture and group discussion methods on the learning of medical sciences students.

Methods: A review study was conducted. Articles were searched through SID, IranMedex, Magiran, PubMed, Science Direct and Google scholar databases. Searching of original articles published from 2000 to 2015 was performed using English key words of teaching, small group discussion, lecture, discussion, student centered and equivalent Farsi keywords. Initially, 65 papers were found and finally 15 articles related to the issue were included in the final review.

Results: All studies had compared lecturing and group discussion, but they had different designs. In all studies, students’ scores were used as learning criterion. In nine studies, the students received higher scores through group discussion than in lecture method. Only in one study, lecturing resulted in better scores and in three studies, no difference was found between the two methods. Four studies also assessed the students’ satisfaction and in three other studies, more satisfaction was reported in group discussion method.

Conclusion: Group discussion seemed to result in better learning than the lecture method. Therefore, this method can be used in combination with lecture method to increase the students` learning.