Addressing Student Diversity and Integrative Learning in an Undergraduate Medical Curriculum

South African universities are increasingly enrolling students from a variety of educational backgrounds. This brings in diversity in levels of language and learning ability and universities face the challenge of adjusting their curricula to meet the academic needs of the different learners. This paper documents our experiences and those of students and teachers on a course that we introduced at a university in South Africa to address student diversity and integrative learning in a higher institution of learning. A five-pronged, spiralling, examinable course entitled “Medical Thought and Practice” was explicitly designed to address integrative learning for a diverse student body in medical education. Five components were designed to address preparation for and practice in integrative learning. These were: “Learning and Language”, “Logic and Critical Thinking”, “Medical Terminology”, “Integrating Problems” and “Health Systems Dynamics”. The methods we used to gather students” reflections reported in this paper were two-fold. Firstly, a student feedback questionnaire was administered to all first-year students at the end of the first and second semesters when the course was first introduced. Secondly, pertinent students’ reflections were extracted from in-depth interviews and focus group discussions during the 4th and 5th years of implementation of the course. Most students’ experiences with the value of the course in enabling integrative learning were positive, increasingly so as their exposure to it increased. Some students reported that they acquired lifelong skills in critical thinking, problem solving and the ability to integrate material from different sources.