TY - JOUR
T1 - Teaching in small portions dispersed over time enhances long-term knowledge retention
AU - Raman, Maitreyi
AU - McLaughlin, Kevin
AU - Violato, Claudio
AU - Rostom, Alaa
AU - Allard, J. P.
AU - Coderre, Sylvain
N1 - Funding Information:
The primary source of funding was provided by Nestle Nutrition Canada through an unrestricted educational grant.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Background: A primary goal of education is to promote long-term knowledge storage and retrieval. Objective: A prospective interventional study design was used to investigate our research question: Does a dispersed curriculum promote better short- and long-term retention over a massed course? Methods: Participants included 20 gastroenterology residents from the University of Calgary (N=10) and University of Toronto (N=10). Participants completed a baseline test of nutrition knowledge. The nutrition course was imparted to University of Calgary residents for 4 h occurring 1 h weekly over 4 consecutive weeks: dispersed delivery (DD). At the University of Toronto the course was taught in one 4h academic half-day: massed delivery (MD). Post-curriculum tests were administered at 1 week and 3 months to assess knowledge retention. Results: The baseline scores were 46.39±6.14% and 53.75±10.69% in the DD and MD groups, respectively. The 1 week post-test scores for the DD and MD groups were 81.67±8.57%, p<0.001 and 78.75±4.43, p<0.001 which was significantly higher than baseline. The 3-month score was significantly higher in the DD group, but not in the MD group (65.28±9.88%, p=0.02 vs. 58.93±12.06%, p=0.18). The absolute pre-test to 1-week post-test difference was significantly higher at 35.28±7.65% among participants in the DD group compared to 25.0±11.80% in the MD group, p=0.048. Similarly, the absolute pre-test to 3-month post-test difference was significantly higher at 18.9±6.7% among the participants in the DD group, compared to 6.8±11.8% in the MD group, p=0.021. Conclusions: Long-term nutrition knowledge is improved with DD compared with MD.
AB - Background: A primary goal of education is to promote long-term knowledge storage and retrieval. Objective: A prospective interventional study design was used to investigate our research question: Does a dispersed curriculum promote better short- and long-term retention over a massed course? Methods: Participants included 20 gastroenterology residents from the University of Calgary (N=10) and University of Toronto (N=10). Participants completed a baseline test of nutrition knowledge. The nutrition course was imparted to University of Calgary residents for 4 h occurring 1 h weekly over 4 consecutive weeks: dispersed delivery (DD). At the University of Toronto the course was taught in one 4h academic half-day: massed delivery (MD). Post-curriculum tests were administered at 1 week and 3 months to assess knowledge retention. Results: The baseline scores were 46.39±6.14% and 53.75±10.69% in the DD and MD groups, respectively. The 1 week post-test scores for the DD and MD groups were 81.67±8.57%, p<0.001 and 78.75±4.43, p<0.001 which was significantly higher than baseline. The 3-month score was significantly higher in the DD group, but not in the MD group (65.28±9.88%, p=0.02 vs. 58.93±12.06%, p=0.18). The absolute pre-test to 1-week post-test difference was significantly higher at 35.28±7.65% among participants in the DD group compared to 25.0±11.80% in the MD group, p=0.048. Similarly, the absolute pre-test to 3-month post-test difference was significantly higher at 18.9±6.7% among the participants in the DD group, compared to 6.8±11.8% in the MD group, p=0.021. Conclusions: Long-term nutrition knowledge is improved with DD compared with MD.
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U2 - 10.3109/01421590903197019
DO - 10.3109/01421590903197019
M3 - Article
C2 - 20218841
AN - SCOPUS:77949420243
SN - 0142-159X
VL - 32
SP - 250
EP - 255
JO - Medical Teacher
JF - Medical Teacher
IS - 3
ER -