The role of lectures in veterinary education

Objective To study the role of lectures from the perspective of staff and s tudents involved in the veterinary course at The University of Queensland Methods The Nominal Group Technique of Delbecq et al, which provides the ma ximum opportunity for group members to put forward points, was used to help develop a questionnaire which was completed by 351 students (a response ra te of 84%) and 35 staff (76%) from the five years of the veterinary course, and was analysed using the SAS System for Windows. Results Almost all the staff and students agreed that lectures should fulfi l many roles including stimulating and motivating students and encouraging them to think, as well as presenting ideas and concepts and an indication o f the structure and relevance of the material. They should provide a guide for effective deep learning, but not encourage rote (or superficial) learni ng. A smaller percentage of staff and even fewer students agreed that lectu res did fulfil these roles, especially those directed at encouraging studen ts to look beyond simple memorisation of facts. The perceived disparity bet ween reality and the ideal was greater amongst the older, clinical students than amongst their more junior colleagues. Conclusions The focus of attention in lectures needs to change from the sup erficial, rote learning of information to deep, active learning directed at using information to solve problems that are perceived by the students to be relevant. If done in a stimulating and interesting way, this should deve lop skills in reasoning and critical analysis as well as providing a framew ork for storage and recall. It should also increase the motivation towards learning both during the veterinary course, and over the professional lifet ime. Furthermore, the place of the lecture in veterinary education needs to be reassessed regularly in the face of newly-emerging educational technolo gy.