Jibran Umar Ayub Khan, Brekhna Jamil, Farooq Ahmed, Umar Ayub Khan, Ayesha Qaiser.
Role play as a learning and teaching modality and its effectiveness in improving the communication and critical thinking skills of medical students.
J Med Sci Jan ;28(2):154-7.

Objectives: To identify the importance of role plays as a learning and teaching modality and find out its effectiveness in improving the communication and critical thinking skills of students. Material and Methods: This Quasi-Experimental study was conducted in Kabir Medical College Peshawar that is a private sector medical institute situated in the north of Peshawar, Pakistan. Probability technique of simple random sampling was used to select 100 students from Year-3, and role plays sessions were conducted by dividing the students into 2 groups with 50 students each. Groups 1 performed the role plays followed by feedback. Group 2 was given brief video demonstration of a breaking bad news sessions only and then asked to give their feedback. Data was collected from both groups by filling a self-designed questionnaire that was previously pilot tested amongst 7 students. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 23. Chi-square test was used to compare the responses of two groups with a P value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: In group 1, 47 out of 50 students (94%) and in group 2, 32 out of 50 students(64%) admitted that role-play scan improve critical thinking and communication skills (p=0.02). Regarding role plays as a teaching modality, 46 out of 50 students (92%) in group 1 and 28 out of 50 (56 %) in group 2, rated it to be effective (p=0.02). Considerably small number of students had any previous participation in role plays, 14 in group 1 and 15 in group 2 (p value=0.21).Conclusion: Role plays as a teaching and learning modality is an innovative style of teaching in improving the communication and critical thinking skills of students.

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