title: Exploring teaching style in an undergraduate medical college following traditional curriculum in Pakistan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To find out the teaching style and its differences among teachers in a medical college setup.
  
  
  METHODS
  The observational cross-sectional study was carried out from June to August 2011 at a private medical and dental college in Karachi, using traditional curriculum and comprising 77 faculty members. Self-assessment Staffordshire Evaluation of Teaching Styles questionnaire was used for data collection. SPSS version 15.0 was used for analysis of categorical variables and t-test and analysis of variance were used to compare data variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the total, 28 (36.4%) teachers preferred all round flexible and adaptable style; 19 (24.7%) preferred student-centred, sensitive; 4 (5.2%) official curriculum; 5 (6.5%) straight facts no nonsense; 6 (7.8%) big conference; 1 (1.3%) one-off; and 14 (18.2%) mixed. Percentage of 'all round flexible and adaptable' was higher among females, senior faculty and clinical sciences when compared to males, junior faculty and basic sciences. However, females, junior faculty, and basic science teachers attained significantly higher in official curriculum scores compared to males, senior faculty, and clinical sciences respectively. Similarly, basic sciences teachers attained significantly higher in big conference teaching style score compared to clinical sciences teachers (p < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Traditional curriculum does not support all round flexible and adaptable teaching style. Gender, curriculum, teaching strategies and faculty rank of the teacher influence the teaching style. To train teachers, effective faculty development should be done in medical colleges.
authors.affiliation: Hamdard College of Medicine and Dentistry, Hamdard University, Karachi, Pakistan. drdanishhaseen@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Syed Danish Haseen
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.affiliation: Hamdard College of Medicine and Dentistry, Hamdard University, Karachi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Syed Muhammed
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Mubeen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010154:Pakistan; D012737:Sex Factors; D013663:Teaching