ISSN 2415-3060 (print), ISSN 2522-4972 (online)
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УЖМБС 2017, 2(3): 172–176
https://doi.org/10.26693/jmbs02.03.172
Humanitarian issues of medicine and problem of teaching at the higher school

Ways to Improve Foreign Students’ Educational Process at the Department of Histology, Cytology and Embryology, IFNMU

Gevka O. I.
Abstract

Nowadays the rapid progress in the sphere of medicine stimulates faster development of medical education in Ukraine. Due to this reason one of the priority tasks for the Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University is to establish cooperation and expand the educational network with foreign countries, attract more foreign citizens to study, as it contributes to the prosperity and further integration of Ukrainian medical science in international scientific and educational community. The Department of Histology, Cytology and Embryology has created modern educational, methodological, scientific, technical and practical facilitates for medical students, including foreign students. An important factor which determines the success of all the implemented educational reforms is the personal relevance of the direct participants in the educational process, namely, teachers and students. Taking into account the above mentioned facts, Department of Histology, Cytology and Embryology conducted an independent anonymous questionnaire among English-speaking second-year students of the Foreign Students Training Faculty. The aim of the study is to find out the attitude of foreign students to the educational process at the Department of Histology, Cytology and Embryology, and after analyzing the results, to draw conclusions aimed at optimizing the educational process of foreign citizens. In total 81 students participated in survey, according to the independent anonymous questionnaire data. At the same time, the total number of English-speaking students who were studying during the period of the survey at the Department of Histology was 108 people. The questionnaire was compiled in accordance to generally accepted requirements regarding the structure of the questionnaire. Foreign students were offered 10 questions in English divided into three groups. The first group included questions aimed at clarifying the opinion of foreign students regarding their syllabus in "Histology, Cytology and Embryology". 78.7% of respondents agreed that the syllabus is relevant and promotes the acquisition of necessary professional skills. However, part of the students (21.3%) believes that the syllabus developed by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine in accordance with the requirements of the international credit and modular system is insufficient for the acquisition of required professional skills. To the next question: "Does the syllabus complexity level encourage students’ progress?" the vast majority of respondents (73.8%) answered "yes." Although there were such (26.2%), in whose opinion the level of load on the subject of histology is excessive and this is precisely the reason for the decline in the success of their training. Answers to the questions of the second group demonstrate exactly how foreign students actually evaluate the processes of teaching and learning at the Department of Histology, Cytology and Embryology. Almost half of the interviewed English-speaking students (47.5%) believe that teachers’ of English have advanced level. Nevertheless, 52.5% indicate that in their opinion the level of proficiency in English by teachers does not reach advanced level. It should be mentioned that despite such a distribution of student thoughts, regarding the knowledge of English by teachers, in their questionnaire responses, the dominant number of students (70.5%) assert that on histology classes teachers’ way of new material explanation is interesting and informative.47.5% of foreign students are satisfied with the number and quality of the technical support of the educational process at the Department of Histology. But 52.5% of surveyed believe that the technical support of the department is insufficient; they would like that during the educational process new modern technologies were used. To the question "Are relationship between a student and a teacher based on mutual respect?" 78.7% responded favorably ("yes"). However, there are foreign students (21.3%) who would like to establish better relations in the "teacher-student" cooperation. The results of the analysis of the third group of questions "Give your opinion on the student’s evaluation" reflect a similar distribution of foreign students’ votes towards each issue. For 78.7% of the students, the evaluation criteria at the Department of Histology are quite understandable. Approximately the same number of the respondents (77.0%) fully agrees with the final results, because they, in the students’ opinion, really reflect the true level of their knowledge. Regarding the question of the objectivity of the assessment, the majority of the polled foreigners (73.8%) assert that the evaluation at the Department of Histology is carried out objectively and that, in case of necessity, they can obtain feedback on their progress results (70.5%). Taking into account the results of our research, we conclude that in order to optimize the educational process of foreign citizens, it is necessary: to improve the informing of foreign students about the features of the Ukrainian credit-module system of education and about the evaluation criteria; to improve technical support, to improve teachers’ English; to establish better relationship between teacher and student during educational process, based on mutual respect and cooperation; to increase the effectiveness of studying the subject and educate future medical professionals.

Keywords: foreign students, high education, histology, cytology and embryology

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