Role-playing and its Association with Problem-based Learning in Microbiology Education Academic Article in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • © 2021 ACM.Microbiology and Microbiology Laboratory are curricular subjects required for the Biotechnology Engineering degree at Tecnologico de Monterrey, a private University located in Mexico. Although highly interesting to students, these courses are not easily assimilated due to the complexity and extensiveness of their theoretical contents, which sometimes makes it harder for students to be engaged. By this motive, with the purpose of incrementing student knowledge and retention in the topics previously seen, a group of professors at the State of Mexico campus designed several medical microbiology study cases. In this way, they could facilitate the students' acquisition and retention of knowledge about the lab practice topics, which were presented as a role-play detective game through the findings, and solving of clues. These cases were distributed to teams of three students. Each team received a different case to be investigated for an hour and a half, allowing them to use computers, the internet, or books, without communicating with other teams in the classroom. The cases required a series of steps, each with a different procedure from the laboratory practices. This exercise allowed the teachers to evaluate the students' understanding and knowledge of the previously completed laboratory practices. The results were compared with other groups that were evaluated using the traditional written knowledge test. Results showed greater information retention and long-term knowledge and higher abilities to solve problems than students who had traditional written tests.

publication date

  • March 17, 2021