Towards understanding the quantitative literacy demands of a first-year medical curriculum

Setting. When designing a medical curriculum, assumptions that are made about students' quantitative literacy (QL) competencies often lead to demands that students are unable to meet. In order to improve the match between the literacy demands of the curriculum and the literacy competencies of students, the demands need to be examined critically and the assumptions made explicit. Curriculum changes that reduce the articulation gap between demands and competencies are particularly important for broadening access and promoting success, in tertiary study, for students with disadvantaged educational backgrounds. Objectives. The objectives of this study are to survey the QL implicitly and explicitly contained in a course curriculum, in a manner that could be useful for the following purposes: raising awareness in health science lecturers of the nature and extent of the QL demands of their course materials, developing the theory relating to best practice for QL development in health sciences and informing the design of QL interventions. Method. We focus on the analysis of the QL competencies required of a student engaging with text-based learning materials in the curriculum of a first-year integrated human biology/epidemiology/biochemistry course. For the analysis we use a framework, which classifies quantitative material according to a mathematical and statistical dimension and a competencies dimension. Results and conclusions. A range of examples is presented which illustrate that the implicit QL demands of this first-year course curriculum are substantial and varied

Understanding the experiences of students who enter the MBChB programme from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds and either succeed or fail in passing the first semester

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-77).This qualitative study was conducted during 2005 in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town. Drawing on the theoretical framework of the New Literacy Studies and, in particular, Gee's notion of Discourse acquisition, I sought to better understand the issues that impacted on success for students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds who entered the MBChB programme

Body Painting with Palpation - Feedback to UCT CABA Journal Club, 2019.

Feedback to UCT post-graduate anatomy students on the body painting with palpation workshop at the Anatomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA) conference 2019. This form of body painting for anatomy study follows from the fundamental principles of observation embodied in the Haptico-visual observation and drawing (HVOD) method

Body Painting With Palpation Workshop. Anatomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA) Conference 2019.

At the Anatomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA) 2019 conference, a 2.5-hour Body Painting with Palpation workshop was offered to participants and ten participants attended. The workshop was interactive, and participants paired off and took turns to palpate each other’s upper limbs, identify anatomical features beneath the skin and then mark these features on the surface of the skin using brushes and different coloured washable dyes. The idea was not to make ‘art’ or aesthetically pleasing marks, but rather to achieve the closer observation of the anatomy. The making of marks on the skin was merely to reinforce and record what was being observed with palpation. The advantage of these dyes is that they are transparent, which results in one layer of colour being visible through the next layer of colour. The implication is that anatomical features can be depicted relative to each other and at their various depths. It is important for the participants to palpate their colleagues' anatomical part under investigation (such as the upper limb), in order to observe with touch what is under their skin, and then mark down in colour what they have observed. It is also vital that the anatomical part is treated as a 3D object and that palpation and mark-making take place ‘in the round’ and not only on one surface of the limb. In this way, the spatial layout of the anatomical part is taken into account and observed in all of its three dimensions. The idea is to use palpation and mark-making as a means of exploration, discovery and learning.</p

Body Painting in Anatomy Education. Anatomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA) Conference, 2019.

Body painting using inexpensive food dye in order for students to palpate a living body while at the same time marking the anatomical features that they feel beneath the skin. This is primarily a haptic observation exercise and its aim is to augment other forms of anatomy learning

Structural variations in the sulco-gyral pattern of the orbitofrontal cortex

Background: The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is composed of sulci and gyri, which form patterns that are variations of an H-shape. Three pattern types are described with the Type III pattern associated with schizophrenia and increased risk of long-term cannabis use. No studies from Africa have described the prevalence of pattern types of the OFC. The aim of the study was to determine the sulcal and gyral patterns of the OFC in a South African sample, and whether there are any significant differences in these patterns between hemispheres and sex. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 43 embalmed adult brains was undertaken. The patterns of the sulci and gyri of the OFC were investigated, and the prevalence of each pattern type determined. Differences in the prevalence between hemispheres and sex were analyzed with Chi-square tests. Results: Type I was present in 27 hemispheres (31%), Type II in 28 (33%) and Type III in 31 (36%), with no significant differences observed between hemispheres and sex for any of the pattern types. Conclusion: The Type III pattern was found to be the most prevalent in this study. The Type III pattern may result from abnormal folding of the gyrus associated with premature birth. An increased expression of Type III has been observed in patients with an increased risk of developing schizophrenia and substance abuse disorders. Further studies are needed to investigate these associations and whether Type III can be considered as a biomarker for psychiatric disorders

What happens to misunderstandings of biomedical concepts across a medical curriculum?

Research on the extent and nature of commonly misunderstood fundamental biomedical concepts across a medical curriculum is scarce. These misunderstandings could point toward robust misconceptions. We examined first whether common misunderstandings persist throughout a medical curriculum, followed by a fine-grained analysis to identify their nature. We designed and administered a 2-tier test to 987 medical students across our curriculum, with 8 questions covering the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, cell div

Health Sciences undergraduate education at UCT: A story of transformation

Undergraduate education and training in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town has become socially responsive. A story of transformation that is consonant with wider societal developments since the 1994 democratic elections, outlining the changes in undergraduate curricula across the faculty, is presented