Cognitive abilities and medical students' practice of physical exams: A quasi-experimental study

BACKGROUND

To highlight the importance of clinical simulations and simulated laboratories for student training, especially in physical examination teaching.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the gains obtained by medical students in their cognitive and practical performance of physical examinations (abdominal, cardiological, and pulmonary), as well as satisfaction and self-confidence in what they have learned, after concentrated practice developed in a skills and simulation laboratory.

DESIGN AND SETTING

A quantitative and quasi-experimental study in which 48 students were evaluated at the Faculdade de Odontologia de Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil.

METHODS

A quantitative and descriptive study was conducted with regularly enrolled 2nd year medical students over 18 years of age who had content prior to data collection regarding anamnesis and physical examination remotely taught in a Moodle virtual learning environment. For data collection, the participants were subjected to a concentrated period of skill training (abdominal, cardiological, and pulmonary). Every day after the skill training session, they were subjected to a practical evaluation and completed a theoretical test before and after the practical activities. At the end of all activities, they answered the instrument to assess the simulated practices (self-confidence and satisfaction).

RESULTS

Among the 49 students evaluated, positive and significant theoretical and practical gains were identified in all three components (abdominal, cardiological, and pulmonary) (P = 0.000), as well as in the general evaluation (Theoretical 1 and Theoretical 2) (P = 0.000), satisfaction, and self-confidence (P = 0.000).

CONCLUSION

Concentrated laboratory practice resulted in positive improvements in students' physical examination skills.

Teacher feedback-based collaborative testing improves students' knowledge gaps of parasitology

Collaborative testing has been demonstrated the ability to improve students' performance, enhance students' learning, and aid in knowledge retention in many different courses. However, this examination mode lacks the process of teacher feedback. Herein, a short teacher feedback from was added immediately after the collaborative testing to improve the students' performance. A parasitology class of 121 undergraduates was randomized into two groups: group A and group B. Collaborative testing was carried out at the end of theoretical teaching. During the test, students would first answer questions as individuals for 20 minutes. Then, students from group A answered the same questions in groups (5 students in each group) for 20 minutes, while the group-testing duration was only 15 minutes in group B. Immediately after the group testing, teachers conducted a 5-minute feedback about the morphology identification according to the analysis of the answers by group B. Four weeks later, a final test was conducted in an individual test. The total scores and scores for each examination content were analyzed. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the final exam scores between both groups (t = -1.278, P = 0.204). However, the morphological and diagnostic test results of the final examination in group B were significantly higher than those of the midterm examination, while there was no significant change in group A (t = 4.333, P = 0.051). The results confirmed that the teacher feedback after the collaborative testing can effectively make up for the students' knowledge gaps.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study found that collaborative group testing is helpful for teachers to grasp students' knowledge gaps more easily and the teacher feedback after the collaborative group testing can effectively make up for the knowledge gaps of students.

Dental students’ academic performance before and after the Covid-19 pandemic: A retrospective analysis

Delivering quality education to students with fair assessment strategies is a key indicator of an excellent educational institution. The present study explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the academic performance of dental students in terms of the evaluations/grades awarded to them before and during the pandemic. The targeted groups were dental students, studying in the third year of 2018-2019 and 2020-2021 academic years. The sample size included all male and female students who enrolled and completed the following courses: pre-clinical fixed prosthodontics (SDS333), pre-clinical removal prosthodontics (SDS323), clinical operative dentistry-1 (RDS313), and pre-clinical endodontics (RDS323). Evaluations for students who did not complete the requirements were not included in the statistical analysis. Paired sample statistics were used for comparisons between the different groups at p < 0.05. Results revealed statistically significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) for all the course pairs. It was found that students’ grades for all the courses during the pandemic year were higher compared to the grades before the pandemic. While female students demonstrated the highest mean difference (6.13) before and during the pandemic year for RDS323, males demonstrated the highest mean difference (8.14) for SDS323. However, both male and female students demonstrated the lowest mean difference (0.25 and 2.03, respectively) for SDS333. The grades were higher during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, female students achieved higher grades than male students.

Effects of Knowledge Hiding in Dual Teaching Methods on Students' Performance-Evidence From Physical Education Department Students

With the post-pandemic situation, digitalization has revolutionized physical teaching into online teaching and has become a common practice. The engagement of students has been essential for their good academic performance which can be ensured by the active participation of the students and this is a real challenge for the teachers. However, sometimes in online and physical teaching, teachers are also involved in rationalized knowledge hiding, which leads to the disengagement of the students, and this ultimately affects their academic performance. Therefore, the present study aims at measuring the students’ disengagement in the teaching classes, both physical and online. The population of the present study is the students from the universities of China belonging to different fields of study. The sample size for this study is 246. The data are obtained through the Questionnaire surveys. The existing study has assessed the role of teachers’ rationalized knowledge hiding behaviors in the disengagement of students and their lesser grades. It has been found that rationalized knowledge hiding in online teaching does not affect students’ performance; however, it makes students disengage from their studies in physical classes. Interestingly, the rationalized knowledge hiding in physical teaching has negatively affected the performance of the students. Furthermore, the mediating role of the students’ disengagement has been found significant in this study. Organizations, especially universities, can ensure maximum knowledge sharing by motivating the instructors through positive reinforcements. This study will be useful for the curriculum coordinators of different departments in ensuring the maximum outcome of the teaching classes, workshops, and seminars conducted either physically or online to avoid the rationalized knowledge hiding of the teachers.

Self-Efficacy Beliefs of University Students: Examining Factor Validity and Measurement Invariance of the New Academic Self-Efficacy Scale

Academic self-efficacy beliefs influence students' academic and career choices, as well as motivational factors and learning strategies promoting effective academic success. Nevertheless, few studies have focused on the academic self-efficacy of university students in comparison to students at other levels. Furthermore, extant measures present several limitations. The first aim of this study was to develop a reliable and valid scale assessing university students' self-efficacy beliefs in managing academic tasks. The second aim was to investigate differences in academic self-efficacy due to gender, years of enrollment, and student status. The study involved 831 students (age M = 21.09 years; SD = 1.34 years; 66.3% women) enrolled in undergraduate programs. Indicators of academic experiences and performance (i.e., number of exams passed and average exam rating) were collected. A new scale measuring students' academic self-efficacy beliefs was administered. Results from a preliminary Exploratory Factor Analysis were consistently supported by findings from a Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Multigroup CFA supported the presence of measurement invariance. Analyses revealed that the new scale has eight factors: "Planning Academic Activities," "Learning Strategies," "Information Retrieval," "Working in Groups," "Management of Relationships with Teachers," "Managing Lessons," "Stress Management," and "Thesis Work." Self-efficacy dimensions showed significant relations with academic experiences and students' performance indicators, as well as differences due to gender, years of enrollment, and student status. Findings are discussed in terms of practical implications for the implementation of intervention programs aimed at fostering self-efficacy beliefs and academic success.

Use of Computing Devices as Sensors to Measure Their Impact on Primary and Secondary Students' Performance

The constant innovation in new technologies and the increase in the use of computing devices in different areas of the society have contributed to a digital transformation in almost every sector. This digital transformation has also reached the world of education, making it possible for members of the educational community to adopt Learning Management Systems (LMS), where the digital contents replacing the traditional textbooks are exploited and managed. This article aims to study the relationship between the type of computing device from which students access the LMS and how affects their performance. To achieve this, the LMS accesses of students in a school comprising from elementary to bachelor’s degree stages have been monitored by means of different computing devices acting as sensors to gather data such as the type of device and operating system used by the students.The main conclusion is that students who access the LMS improve significantly their performance and that the type of device and the operating system has an influence in the number of passed subjects. Moreover, a predictive model has been generated to predict the number of passed subjects according to these factors, showing promising results.

[Use of high-fidelity patient simulators for the assessment of students' performance]

INTRODUCTION

The authors started to use high-fidelity simulators at Semmelweis University, Faculty of Health Sciences in September, 2007.

AIM

The aim of this study was to evaluate the students' performance in order to determine their knowledge after each simulation course.

METHOD

The Creighton Simulation Evaluation Instrument (C-SEI) was used to evaluate midwifery students' performance during examinations. 67 midwifery students were evaluated after the "Clinical simulation" course and 58 midwifery students after the "Case studies in simulation" course.

RESULTS

The average total scores were significantly higher than the desired level of 75 (p<0.01); after the "Clinical simulation" 88.8±9,14, and after the "Case studies in simulation" courses 86.6±14.87. Among subscales the lowest average total score was found in critical thinking in each of the course. Statistically significant correlation was found between the results of "General nursing care" and the results of "Case studies in simulation" courses (r = 0.34; p<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

The use of high-fidelity simulators with valid tools simultaneously might be a suitable method for students' evaluation.