Learning orientation in the specialty of pediatrics

OBJECTIVE: To investigate in first year pediatric residents whether they increase their knowledge by questioning, debate and discussion. METHODS: The participants were 53 residents from 6 hospitals of the Mexican Social Security system. A Differential Scale of Group Interaction (DSGI) was constructed and validated. It had subscales A and B to assess group interactions (A) and individual construction of knowledge (B). Scoring with the DSGI was done in the 6 hospitals by two observers on different occasions. RESULTS: Sub-scale A showed a significant interhospitals differences with a Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA (p < .001) whereas the 6 hospitals showed the minimum score in Subscale B with obviously no interhospital differences. Two items in Subscale A (Individual work and Trainee participation) showed a high concordance between observers (weighted kappas of 0.66 and 0.59) but it was negative (kw = -0.20) in "Time participation". CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that there were differences in group interactions of the hospitals but without any apparent reflection on the construction of knowledge in the trainees. These observations suggest to us that there was an orientation toward a passive consuming of information by these participants.