The Predominance of Recall in Histology Knowledge Among Undergraduate Medical Students

Abstract

Context: Histology, an essential branch of anatomy, focuses on the microscopic structure of tissues and organs of the human body. A sound understanding of histology is fundamental for developing competent physicians, as it provides the basis for correlating structure with function at the cellular and tissue levels. By linking normal and abnormal structures, medical students can better identify pathological changes and contribute to accurate diagnosis and effective management of disease.
Materials and methods: Answering recall-level and understand-level and application-level true/false questions and fill-in-the-blanks type questions was attempted by 100 medical undergraduates who were eligible for the first professional examination in two government and one private medical college of Bangladesh. Kruskal-Wallis Anova post Hoc test was done for comparing correct responses.
Results: The performances of the medical undergraduates in answering ‘application-level’ and ‘understand-level’ objective written questions were significantly poorer (p = 0.00) than ‘recall-level’ objective written questions.
Conclusion: The present research indicates that there is no single learning method to learn Histology. A combination of strategies may be more useful. It indicates that higher levels of cognitive domains need to be addressed properly in the written question papers. This study also focuses that proper implementation of curriculum is necessary.

J Shaheed Suhrawardy Med Coll 2025; 17(1): 42-45