PORTFOLIO AS AN ACTIVE LEARNING METHODOLOGY FOR THE STUDY OF THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM

The goal of this study was to use a portfolio regarding the physiology of the endocrine system for second-year medical students (n = 125) as an active methodology in the teaching-learning process. Moreover, the portfolio was used as reference material for the cognitive monitoring test (CMT). The students were divided into groups and instructed to organize a portfolio with 7 cards containing 7 topics about the proposed subject. Later, the students answered two questions about the teaching methodology applied: 1) How did you evaluate the portfolio? 2) Did the activity aid in your learning process? Why? The results demonstrate that most students (92.8%) thought that the portfolio was effective teaching and learning tool while 7.2% of students reported that the methodology used was not important. The majority of the scores (76.05%) for the test were above 50% of the possible total score for the CMT (5.0 to 6.9) from the students that knew they would be allowed to consult portfolio. Additionally, the majority of the scores (92.6%) for test were above the course average (7.0) from the students that did not know they would be allowed to consult portfolio. In face of the results obtained from students' opinions and by analyzing the CMT scores, we can come to the conclusion that the use of the portfolio as an active methodology in the teaching-learning process for second-year medical students has encouraged the search for knowledge and has allowed for an active construction for learning about the endocrine system physiology, besides developing in each student the ability to debate and share the knowledge in the group and among groups