ANALYSIS OF APPROACHES AND METHODS IN TEACHING PHYSIOLOGY TO STUDENTS OF MEDICAL UNIVERSITIES IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the analysis of approaches to teaching physiology of students of medical universities in different countries of the world, and the methods that are most appropriate to use in teaching physiology in Ukraine to improve the effectiveness of the educational process are analyzed. The authors conducted a bibliographic, informational and semantic search of sources regarding the approaches and technological methods used in the teaching of physiology in medical educational institutions. Materials from PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases were processed. A systematic review of original studies and reviews published between 2000 and 2023 was performed. Articles were selected and screened according to PRISMA guidelines. Modern methods of teaching physiology in medical education include the following main types: lectures, practical and laboratory work, educational experiments, cooperative learning, problem-oriented learning, learning through observation, learning based on specific cases (case technologies), flipped class, team learning, learning based on modeling, online learning, mastering the methods of evidence-based medicine. The widespread implementation of teaching methods that reduce the interaction between teachers and students, increase the relative time of independent study or study in a student group, has positive aspects, but carries a number of risks. Reducing the duration of supervised learning, increasing the time spent on finding solutions to educational tasks, increasing the probability that a student does not receive individual help from a teacher in difficult questions – these and other features of innovative methods should be taken into account especially carefully during the study of fundamental scientific disciplines that form a systematic ideas about biological processes, but the experience and skills of educational work in many students are not yet sufficiently formed. The introduction of problem-oriented learning into medical education caused concern in the medical and scientific community about the risk of gaps in the fundamental knowledge of physiological processes, which negatively affects the specialist's ability to assess non-standard medical situations. In response to this, the European Physiological Society developed a physiology curriculum for medical students “Physiological Objectives for Medical Students”. It includes 10 chapters, which include the basic concepts of physiology, a plan for studying body systems and the principles of their regulation. Analysis of the experience of using different teaching methods shows that each of them has its positive features and disadvantages. Most of the innovative methods are focused on the activation of students' educational activities, the development of their teamwork skills, the formation of analytical skills, and the creation of interdisciplinary, systemic knowledge. But each of the methods also has disadvantages, which makes it impossible to use it as the only recommended one. Blended learning with the use of high-tech methods of information support, with the use of virtual and model experiments and the expansion of their application in order to fully replace experiments on animals, actualization of knowledge is recommended and necessary in the modern world.