Presentations with an explicit outline are recalled better than ones without: A randomized controlled trial

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Practice points

In many medical schools, lectures are the main method of large group teaching. Lecturing has been criticized as an ineffective educational technique and efforts should be undertaken to increase the effectiveness of this widely used teaching method. Students who attend a presentation with an explicit outline remember significantly more compared to those who attend a presentation without outline 2 weeks after the presentation.

Table 1.  Key message, headline statements and facts, respectively, examples supporting the headline statements

Key message
Milk is an important source of calcium for the human body
Headline statements	Facts, examples
HS 1; The human body requires a daily intake of 1–1.2 g Ca from nutrition	Calcium is important for bone structure. The daily recommended intake ranges 1–1.2 g per day.
	We store calcium in our bones until age 20.
	Peak bone mass remains stable for the following 20 years We start losing bone mass slowly but steadily at about age 40. The loss of bone mass depends on gender differences. The years after menopause most women experience rapid bone mass loss due to hormonal factors.
	Therefore more calcium should be ingested than excreted – mainly by nutrition and marginally by water.
HS 2; Milk is one of the most effective calcium sources in nutrition since it has the highest calcium density in terms of energy	Ca in milk is inherently well suited for delivering the required substances for bone building to babies.
	One litre of milk contains 1.2 g protein-bound calcium. Casein is the major milk protein and it occurs as micelle. Micelles contain calcium and phosphate in their structure, are stable, and are responsible for the white colour of milk. Milk (400 mL) provides 40%–50% of the daily-recommended intake of calcium. In terms of energy, milk is the nutrition with the highest calcium density.
	All dairy products have a high availability of calcium, which can be used in your body. This particularly applies to dairy products with a high protein content like cheese.
	The demand for calcium can also be covered with calcium supplements like pills, but then valuable milk proteins are missing.
HS 3; Milk plays an important role to prevent from the consequences of insufficient calcium absorption through nutrition	Inadequate bone density can result in osteoporosis. Thus, it is important to ingest sufficient calcium from food at any age.
	Osteoporosis is an imbalance between bone formation and resorption. Bone fragility increases with age because many (elderly) people are affected by osteoporosis.
	A well-balanced nutrition and sufficient ingestion of calcium and vitamin D3 is necessary to prevent osteoporosis at any age. In terms of energy, milk contains both, Calcium and vitamin D3 in high concentration. Therefore, milk and other dairy products are particularly valuable food.
HS 4; Most people are able to consume milk and dairy products because intolerances are quite rare and dairy products are available at affordable prices	Milk intolerance can lead to reduced consumption of dairy products. It is important to distinguish lactose intolerance from milk protein allergy.
	Lactose intolerance, which is very rare in Northern Europe, is the inability to metabolize lactose, because the required enzyme lactase is absent in the intestinal system or its availability is lowered.
	Milk protein allergy is very rare and means basically the intolerance to whey proteins and in some cases the allergic reaction to casein.
	Milk and dairy products are often state-subsidized because of different production costs worldwide. New Zealand is one of the few countries where neither milk nor meat production are supported by the state. Production costs are relatively low because of favourable climatic conditions.

Figure 1. Flowchart.

Figure 2. Scores for memorization (maximum 22 points) immediately after presentation and 2 weeks later. Notes: Results are depicted as means and SD (control group • and experimental group O).