Introduction:

Many universities that run the medical profession have developed curricula and assessment methods under a competence model approach.

Models of classroom teaching have not kept pace with these plans, because a dominance of traditional teaching models is observed. Therefore, it is necessary to propose new methods of medical education that leverage the technology available and assess the impact these new strategies have in the development of academic competences.

Objective:

to propose and evaluate the impact of a constructivist pedagogical model supported by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in achieving competences in medicine and compare it against the traditional model.

Methods:

35 medical students from the Faculty of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the University Justo Sierra (JS) who completed the field of geriatrics at a 2nd level hospital, were divided into 2 groups to pursue a thematic unit under a Traditional Teaching Model (TTM) or under a Constructivist Model (CM) supported by ICT. The achievement of 5 academic competences in both groups was measured as the primary end point.

Results:

17 students were included in the group with the Traditional Teaching Model (TTM) and 18 students were included in the Constructivist Model (CM) supported by ICT. There were significant differences in favor of those who attended the Constructivist Model (CM) supported by ICT (p <0.05) in "decision-making", "problem solving" and "medical record" competences, but not in “clinical reasoning” and “knowledge”.

Conclusions:

Using the Constructivist Model (CM) supported by ICT, students develop "decision making", "problem solving" and "medical record" competences.