THE ANSWER TO STIMULATING LECTURES IS THE QUESTION

Surgical teaching faculty at an urban teaching hospital were studied i n terms of the numbers of questions asked of third-year medical studen ts in the classroom. Forty lectures were studied The number of questio ns addressed to students by the teachers were counted. Following the l ectures, students were asked to record their opinion. Student achievem ent on multiple-choice questions on topics of faculty who asked many v ersus no questions were compared in a post hoc analysis of the surgery final examination. The number of questions asked per lecture ranged f rom 0 to 72 (mean = 20, so = 21). Ten faculty (26%) did not ask questi ons. Students rated faculty who asked questions to be more stimulating than those who did not. No significant differences in achievement wer e found on test items of faculty who asked a high frequency of questio ns when compared with those who did not question. Our data suggest tha t faculty who involved students in their lectures through the use of q uestions were perceived more favourably by students than those who did not.