The best instructional format for teaching moderate number of medical students about Electrocardiograph (ECG) analysis is not established. The aim is to identify the preferred method of teaching ECG analysis between teacher centered i.e. Interactive lecture (IL) and learner centered method i.e. small group teaching (SG) by studying their effect on short term and midterm knowledge retention. This prospective randomized study was conducted on III semester medical students with scanty knowledge of ECG analysis who attended a single session of IL or SG with identical educational principles and objectives. The content was based on six step methodology of analyzing ECG –RISWAC. Participants were administered pre-test before the session, posttest on completion of teaching session, and retention test 4 weeks later. The tests assessed identical educational objectives using 15 single answer type of questions with a value of one mark per question. Student’s t test was used to analyses the test scores between groups. Ninety nine students participated in the study; fifty were randomized to IL group and the rest forty nine to SG cluster. Both the methods resulted in statistically significant improvement in post test scores (p<0.001).In the retention test, the corresponding mean scores decreased to 5.6 and3.61 in the IL and SG clusters. Higher scores in the posttest and retention test in IL group suggest that it is a better teaching method of ECG to moderate number of medical students with minimal knowledge of ECG.
