Virginia Research Day 2021

Student Research Educational

04 Identifying and Monitoring Changes in the Learning Approaches of First-Year Medical School Students

Connor Arrasmith, OMS II; Ethan Parker, OMS II; Scott Severance, PhD Corresponding author: Erparker1@liberty.edu

Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine

The purpose of this study is to classify the learning approach of first-year student doctors at LUCOM as surface, deep, or strategic and to monitor how a student’s learning approach changes over the course of the first year of medical school. A review of the current literature examining the impact of learning approaches in higher education would lead a reader to believe that a “deep” learning approach is preferable to “strategic” or “superficial” (Donnison and Penn-Edwards, 2012). There is a lack of substantiated correlation between specific learning approaches and academic performance. This lack of sufficient evidence has been attributed to poor cohesive definitions of the deep, strategic, and surface learning approaches. However, the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) questionnaire provides an exact definition of these learning styles and categorizes students accordingly using a standardized set of 52 Likert Scale style questions. The project we initiated asked first-year students to complete the ASSIST questionnaire and supplemental questions during the first week of classes. These

same students will be asked to answer the same questions during the last week of classes in May of 2021. This will allow a side-by-side comparison of how an individual student’s learning approach may have progressed as they acclimated to medical school education. Additionally, de-identified grades will be utilized in order to identify any correlation between the deep learning approach and higher academic achievement. It is our opinion that exploring the characteristics that aid in becoming a deep learner could help medical schools design curricula and learning objectives that would, in turn, be used to develop a higher caliber of student. We expect that a relationship can be established between a student’s previous education level, past work history in specific fields, and prior study habits to a student’s learning approach (as defined by the ASSIST questionnaire) at the beginning of his or her OMS-I year. Specifically, we hypothesize that a higher level of previous education and clinical healthcare experience would predispose an incoming student to have characteristics similar to those found in learners categorized as deep. Furthermore, we believe that

an individual’s style of learning will continuously shift toward a deep or strategic learning style as that individual progresses through medical school. We distributed the survey to the entire incoming LUCOM class of 2024. Of the 168 incoming students, 121 OMS-I students completed the survey during the first week of classes prior to the first examination. Of those, the majority (82%) were classified as surface learners. The remainder were classified as strategic or deep learners. In our opinion, the most intriguing aspect of our study will occur at the end of the school year when these students are re-surveyed, and their learning habits are re-analyzed. Have students made adjustments in their learning approaches? Are we able to identify changes? Was performance on exams and in courses positively affected in students who shifted from surface to deep learning approach?

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