Edward Palmer | Search PubMed

PubMed2006

Constructing multiple choice questions as a method for learning.

INTRODUCTION: Many different strategies exist to try and encourage students to increase their knowledge and understanding of a subject. This study was undertaken to measure the effect of student-based construction of multiple choice questions (MCQs) as a stimulus for the learning and understanding of topics in clinical surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was carried out at the University of Adelaide, Australia and had 2 components. Fourth-year students were required to provide a case study during a surgical attachment and half of the group was asked to supplement this with MCQs. These students were pre- and post-tested and the effect of the additional intervention (MCQ-construction) measured. Fifth-year students were polled on their preferred methods of learning before and after a learning exercise in which they were asked to undertake a case presentation and create some MCQs. RESULTS: The MCQ questions designed by the students were of a high standard and clearly displayed an understanding of the topic concerned. The 4th-year students in the MCQ construction group showed equivalent outcomes as the case study control group. Students initially ranked MCQ-construction amongst the least stimulating methods of learning, but after the exercise their opinion was significantly more favourable, although still much less than traditional learning methodologies (tutorials, books). CONCLUSIONS: Construction of MCQs as a learning tool is an unfamiliar exercise to most students and is an unpopular learning strategy. However, students are capable of producing high quality questions, and the challenge for medical faculties is how best to use this initiative to the students' advantage.

Australia↗

PubMed2002

Is Swedish pension reform the right medicine for aging Europe?

Following the Second World War, the idea of the life course with distinct periods of education, work, and retirement became popular as a result of the alliance of interests of unions and management, with politicians seizing the opportunity to accommodate them. These "social partners" implemented benefit rules and created practices for using old age and disability to ease the exit of older workers. Although justifiable at the time, now those rules and practices hinder individual and employer incentives to invest in human capital and work environments that enable older workers to remain in the workforce. The article argues that the workforce environment of the coming half-century, which is relevant for persons born around 2000, is much different from that a hundred years earlier, which determined the opportunities for people born around 1900. People are healthier and live much longer and work environments are friendlier. The article argues that it is no longer justifiable to subsidize exit from the workforce around the age of 60 for healthy workers, especially in view of the coming labor shortage in Europe. It also argues that the introduction of the principles of the Swedish NDC pension reform in Europe would provide possibilities for flexible exit from the workforce and remove impediments to labor mobility in Europe, which are embedded in many of Europe's present pension arrangements.

Aged↗