Perceptions of students about the educational environment in Gomal Medical College Dera Ismail Khan

Introduction: Student satisfaction, academic performance, and learning effectiveness have all been related to the educational environmental perceptions in medical institutes. Students' opinions of their educational environment might help medical schools discover impediments and opportunities to improve student learning. Objective: To evaluate student perception related to current traditional and integrated learning methodologies in the Gomal Medical College Dera Ismail Khan. Methods:  The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) questionnaire was provided to students of Gomal Medical College Dera Ismail Khan after approval from the institute. One hundred and sixty-one students out of 190 returned the questionnaire. The data was analyzed with SPSS 27.0. All questions were evaluated on a 5-point Likert scale. Results: The mean age of the students was 21.34±1.73 years. There were 89 (55.34%) males and 72 (42.66%) female students. The mean DREEM score among the students was 116.15±3.73. The highest score among the students was 153 and the lowest score was 42. The scores were higher among males than females. Conclusion:  The students were more positive and self-assured. Students had a more positive attitude toward teachers, the learning environment, and the atmosphere. However, they were lacking in social perceptionrequiring attention. KEYWORDS: Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure, educational environment, medical institutes, perception

Exploring the Efficiency of Concept Cartoons in Enhancing Grade Vii Students’ Conceptual Understanding in Selected Science Concepts

The importance of constructivist approach to teaching and learning science is growing significantly. Much of the efforts have been put to develop pedagogies that take into account constructivist views to improve students' learning outcomes. In this regard, concept cartoon is widely recognized as an innovative strategy rooted in constructivism; however, its efficacy in enhancing conceptual understanding in science needs to be investigated in the Pakistani science classrooms. Thus, this study focused on exploring the efficacy of concept cartoons in enhancing students' conceptual understanding in selected science concepts on Science Achievement Test for Heat (SAT-H). For this study, quasi-experimental design (pre-and post-test control group) was used as a research methodology. A total of 65 students from grade VII participated in the study including comparison group (n=35) and intervention group (n=30). The Science Achievement Test for Heat (SAT-H) was developed and validated which was administered to both groups as pre-test (before intervention) and post-test (after intervention). During intervention, intervention group (lG) was taught with concept cartoons and comparison group (CO) was taught with standard teaching practices. The two groups were compared on overall performance on SAT-H, performance on SAT-H content domains (i.e. heat and temperature, methods of heat transfer) and performance on SAT-H cognitive domains (i.e. knowledge, application and reasoning) in both pre-test and post-test. Results of the study revealed that on pre-test, both groups were evenly matched on their overall performance (p>0.05). Similarly, no differences were found between two groups in all content domains (p>0.05). However, among three cognitive domains, performance of the two groups was found to be different on two cognitive domains favoring 10 for application (p<0.05) and CO for knowledge (p<0.05). Conversely, on post-test, both groups showed improvement, however, IG performed considerably better than CG with significant difference (p