Abstract
Background:
Small group teaching methods (SGTs) are active teaching methods that are an alternative to traditional lectures. These include seminars, buzz groups, fish bowl, cross over groups, snowball groups, and others. Literature suggests that seminars and the fish-bowl method of SGTs improve learning among the students, in turn enhancing their knowledge.

Aim:
To compare the effectiveness of the seminar and fish-bowl method in SGTs and to assess the perceptions of the students and faculty about the seminar and fish-bowl method of teaching in SGTs.

Methods:
An interventional study with purposive sampling involving 146 1st MBBS students was carried out in the Department of Physiology. Students were divided into two groups, group A and group B, by block randomization, each having 73 students. Group A had seminar and group B had fish bowl for SGTs on topic 1. Crossing over was done for the two groups after 1 week, which was then followed by fish bowl for group A and seminar for group B on topic 2. Pre and post MCQ tests were conducted before and at the end of each session for both the groups using Google Forms. Perceptions of faculty and students were collected about the two SGTs using validated questionnaires.

Results:
A significant difference was observed between pre and post test scores of students (<0.01) with both seminar and fish-bowl methods. No significant difference was found between seminar and fish-bowl method with respect to post-test scores [p value 0.96]. Students had better perceptions for fish bowl and perceptions of the faculty were divided between seminar and fish bowl.

Conclusion:
Seminar and fish-bowl methods significantly improved the knowledge acquired by the students at the end of SGTs. Students’ perceptions were in favor of the fish-bowl method compared to the perceptions of faculty, which were divergent for fish bowl and seminar.

Key words: Small group teaching; Seminar; Fish-bowl method; Perceptions.