Input, Process and Output: system approach in education to assure the quality and excellence in performance

Abstract

System approach is a term that means to do something systematically. In educational industry, to teach systematically teachers must consider input, process and output and decide objectives, contents, methods and assessment. The inputs are basically the objectives and objectified contents that teachers put in while the processess are the methods of delivery of contents. Outputs are the end-product of edu-cational inputs and process those must be assessed based on objectives. Probably the most difficult struggle facing the educational industry is about how the curriculum to be customized. Curriculum is the result of piec-ing together of a number of information including vision and mission statements of educational institutions. Objectives, contents, methods and assessment are the key elements of a curriculum. Though medical education is in the process of changing, there are big prob-lem in undergraduate medical education due to lack of objectivity, overloaded content, improper methods of content delivery and inappropriate ways of assessment of out-put. 1,2,3 The input, process and output must be relevant and there must have the right mix of curricular objectives, contents, methods and assessment aimed to produce competent and confident medical practitioners. This paper briefly emphasizes on the needs of alignment of key elements of a curriculum and fit these as input, process and output to meet up the system approach in education. By prop-er implementation of the system approach the educational managers can be able to raise the standard of education and assure the quality and excellence in performance. An input should include objectives and objec-tified contents. Objectives are statements of desire, expected to achieve by the learners at the end of an educational programme. The purpose of learning objective is to communi-cate the desire. Excessive details or a vague statement of desire is a common concern in inputs which may obscure the overall con-cepts or aim of the curriculum. 2,4 Educational objectives are classified in three domains. Cognitive relates to thinking, affective relates to feeling and psychomotor domain relates to acting or doing. Well written learning objec-tives in terms of thinking, feeling and doing are the heart of any curriculum. To write an objective, educators need to considers four parts, the acronym of which is ABCD, where " A " stands for the audience or the learners for whom the objectives are written; " B " stands for behaviour which is a verb that describes what the learners will be able to think, feel and do at the end of the instruction; " C " stands for the conditions which are the circumstances under which the objectives must be complet-ed; " D " stands for degree which are the stan-dard or accuracy that learners have to achieve. Learning objectives should be SMART, an acronym of specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bounding. If objectives are identified clearly then the outcomes, which are the end results of any curriculum or pro-gramme can be pre-determined and achieved. If any part of the objective is missing from the statement, it cannot be communicated accu-rately and the outcome cannot be determined firmly. Contents as inputs should be matched with objectives i.e. it should be clearly correlated with the objectives which are then named as objectified contents. Objectified contents should be specified in terms of cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills learning. Content overload with unrelated specific objectives is a common concern in medical education. To select content, educators have to decide the core and optional portion of a topic

Full text

Editorial
Input, Process and Output: system approach in education to assure the quality and excellence in
performance
Salam A
System approach is a term that means to do
something systematically. In educational
industry, to teach systematically teachers must
consider input, process and output and decide
objectives, contents, methods and assessment.
The inputs are basically the objectives and
objectified contents that teachers put in while
the processess are the methods of delivery of
contents. Outputs are the end-product of edu-
cational inputs and process those must be
assessed based on objectives. Probably the
most difficult struggle facing the educational
industry is about how the curriculum to be
customized. Curriculum is the result of piec-
ing together of a number of information
including vision and mission statements of
educational institutions. Objectives, contents,
methods and assessment are the key elements
of a curriculum. Though medical education is
in the process of changing, there are big prob-
lem in undergraduate medical education due
to lack of objectivity, overloaded content,
improper methods of content delivery and
inappropriate ways of assessment of out-
put.1,2,3 The input, process and output must
be relevant and there must have the right mix
of curricular objectives, contents, methods
and assessment aimed to produce competent
and confident medical practitioners. This
paper briefly emphasizes on the needs of
alignment of key elements of a curriculum and
fit these as input, process and output to meet
up the system approach in education. By prop-
er implementation of the system approach the
educational managers can be able to raise the
standard of education and assure the quality
and excellence in performance.
An input should include objectives and objec-
tified contents. Objectives are statements of
desire, expected to achieve by the learners at
the end of an educational programme. The
purpose of learning objective is to communi-
cate the desire. Excessive details or a vague
statement of desire is a common concern in
inputs which may obscure the overall con-
cepts or aim of the curriculum.2,4 Educational
objectives are classified in three domains.
Cognitive relates to thinking, affective relates
to feeling and psychomotor domain relates to
acting or doing. Well written learning objec-
tives in terms of thinking, feeling and doing
are the heart of any curriculum. To write an
objective, educators need to considers four
parts, the acronym of which is ABCD, where
“A” stands for the audience or the learners for
whom the objectives are written; “B” stands
for behaviour which is a verb that describes
what the learners will be able to think, feel
and do at the end of the instruction; “C” stands
for the conditions which are the circumstances
under which the objectives must be complet-
ed; “D” stands for degree which are the stan-
dard or accuracy that learners have to achieve.
Learning objectives should be SMART, an
acronym of specific, measurable, attainable,
realistic and time bounding. If objectives are
identified clearly then the outcomes, which
are the end results of any curriculum or pro-
gramme can be pre-determined and achieved.
If any part of the objective is missing from the
statement, it cannot be communicated accu-
rately and the outcome cannot be determined
firmly.
Contents as inputs should be matched with
objectives i.e. it should be clearly correlated
with the objectives which are then named as
objectified contents. Objectified contents
should be specified in terms of cognitive,
affective and psychomotor skills learning.
Content overload with unrelated specific
objectives is a common concern in medical
education. To select content, educators have to
decide the core and optional portion of a topic
or curriculum5and should consider “Must
Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol. 14 No. 01 January’15
1
http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjms.v14i1.21553
Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol. 14 No. 01 January'15. Page: 1-2
Corresponds to:
Abdus Salam, Associate Professor, Medical Education Department Faculty of Medicine,
Universiti Kebangsaan, Malaysia.

know,” “Good to know,” and “Nice to know” while
deciding core and optional. Mastery of the core guar-
antees the maintenance of standard and the options
offers areas to the learners for study depending on
individual needs or interest.
After deciding the objectified contents, the next step
is to decide the teaching methods / process for deliv-
ery of the inputs. Teaching methods may be in large
group or in small group format and may be in the
hospital or community settings. Depending on the
settings and format, we select different audio-visual
media to facilitate learning. Selection of appropriate
media or activities involved in content or input deliv-
eries have impact on learning. These activities
includes structuring or designing of power point
slides, example setting during presentation, enhanc-
ing key points, summarising key points before end-
ing, interaction like eye contact/allowing questions
and audibility. Good audibility includes a clearly
spoken speech that is loud enough to be heard with
use of varied tone and rate to hold attention. .
Output is the product of educational input and
process which must be assessed. Teaching and
assessment can be regarded as two sides of the same
coin.6,7 Assessment should be guided directly by the
objectives. Assessment drives learning and learning
drives practice.8 The quality of assessment carried
out to measure the output in medical school has been
a growing concern for medical educators.9The pur-
pose of assessment is to grade or rank the students,
pass or fail the students, provides students’ coun-
selling and updates the course contents and teaching
methods. Students counselling and updating the
teaching methods based on assessment results unfor-
tunately are not done. Objectivity, validity, reliabili-
ty and practicability which are the pillars of an
assessment have been found defective in medical
schools. A variety of comprehensive assessment
tools like multiple choice questions, modified essay
questions, objective structured practical /clinical
examinations, long and short cases etc. are used by
the medical educators to make the assessment reli-
able, valid, objective and practicable in order to pro-
duce good output or competent and confident med-
ical practitioners.
Inputs, processes and outputs are system approaches
in education. Objectives, contents, methods and
assessments are the integral part of system approach
and key elements in any educational planning which
is inter-related with each other. Before asking the
question “What type of product should medical
schools produce?” medical educators must ask “How
do medical schools nurture or grow their garden?”
Input, Process and Output: System approach in education to assure the quality and excellence in performance
2
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