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The Last Will be the First? - How Well do we Teach our Students?

Medizinstudium 2013/2020, 05.06.2019, 16:30

These questions were posed by lecturers, students, and employees of the Faculty of Medicine as part of the series of events "Medical Studies 2013/2020" on June 5, 2019. As in previous events, numerous interested parties came together in the "Forum of Exchange" of the O.A.S.E. to reflect on and discuss an important and current topic for the faculty.

In his welcome address, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Prof. Dr. Nikolaj Klöcker, focused on the topic of the evening: in Düsseldorf, students recently performed the worst nationwide in the second section of the medical examination (M2). Prof. Klöcker explained that this result showed an urgent need for action, which was to be discussed in more detail during the event.

At the same time, however, the dean emphasized the good teaching that was being done in many places in Düsseldorf, irrespective of the M2 results. With the award of the teaching prize of the Faculty of Medicine, the dean made such an example of good teaching at the site visible - the 2019 teaching prize, endowed with € 5,000, went to:

Tania Langebner
Clinic and Policlinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy

Durch die weitere Veranstaltung führte der stv. Prodekan für Lehre und Studienqualität, Prof. Dr. Matthias Schneider. Er setzte die Thematik in den Kontext des Modellstudiengangs, riet aber davon ab, vorschnelle Verbindungen zwischen den M2-Prüfungsergebnissen und dem Modellstudiengang zu knüpfen. Ziel des Modellstudiengangs sei es, gute Ärztinnen und Ärzte auszubilden, was sich wiederum nicht ausschließlich über exzellente Ergebnisse im M2 Examen erfassen ließe. Dennoch müsse man den Befund, bundesweit letzter Platz in der M2-Prüfung sehr ernst nehmen. Man müsse darüber hinaus nachdenken, wie man die Prüfungsvorbereitung verbessern sowie das Selbstbewusstsein und die Wettbewerbsbereitschaft der Düsseldorfer Studierenden steigern könne. Er regte alle Beteiligten an, im Rahmen der Veranstaltung erste Ideen zu entwickeln.

To give the participants an overview, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Decking first presented statistics on the M2 exam results of the past years. This showed that the performance in M2 has not changed after the introduction of the model course. He pointed out possible influencing factors for the poor performance of the Düsseldorf students, such as misguidance through the use of too high a proportion of old questions in the block final examinations.

Finally, Prof. Dr. Harm Peters, head of the Dieter Scheffner Center at the Charité, was given the floor. He spoke about the connection between exams and learning success and reported on Berlin's experience with the M2 ranking. He, too, emphasized that M2 results do not necessarily allow conclusions to be drawn about the quality of the physicians trained. While the content of the state examination is primarily focused on medical expertise, other physician competencies, which would be very relevant in everyday professional life and presumably also according to the new licensing regulations, are hardly taken into account. In addition to the "assessment of learning", the "assessment for learning" is therefore important: competence-based examination concepts can prepare students for the broad spectrum of requirements in the medical profession. Prof. Peters emphasized that, in his opinion, Düsseldorf is on the right track with "learning from treatment events" and the "Mini-CEX". It is important to make the successes in practice visible and to create sustainable structures so that good ideas and concepts can be (further) implemented.

In order to be able to better prepare students for the state examinations and everyday professional life in the future, also through the block final examinations, Dr. Bastian Malzkorn from the area of medical didactics subsequently revealed typical errors in the formulation of examination questions and presented criteria for good, case-based MC examination questions.

In the ensuing discussion, the participants agreed that the poor performance of students in M2 should not and should not be ignored. However, it also became clear that the practical training of the students should not be pushed into the background again.

The participants saw a possible approach for a better preparation of the students for the M2 examination in an extension of the examination preparation time in the sense of a "100-day learning plan". Those present also considered the increased use of revision courses for targeted preparation for M2 as well as the sustainable optimization of local exam questions to be very useful measures.

Prof. Schneider thanked the participants for their suggestions and invited them to further discussion and to finish the event with currywurst and cool drinks in the evening sun behind the O.A.S.E..

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