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Study approaches, study methods, academic success, and recall of anatomical learning
Author(s) -
Ward Peter Jason
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.447.1
Subject(s) - recall , categorization , class (philosophy) , psychology , medical education , mathematics education , medicine , cognitive psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence
The purpose of this research was to investigate how students learn and recall anatomical knowledge. A group of medical students was assessed with the ASSIST instrument to categorize their approaches to study. Each group's performance on four outcomes (anatomy grade, cumulative grades at end of 1st and 2nd year, COMLEX exam) was compared by ANOVA. For all outcomes, strategic approaches were associated with high performance and surface approaches with poor performance. Subsequently, I investigated how students used available study methods and how this impacted long term recall. Students completed an open‐ended questionnaire about how they studied and responses were coded using grounded theory to find emergent themes. An anatomy assessment was administered six months after the course to find high and low‐recall cohorts in the class. Factors associated with effective recall were the ability to abstract information from multiple sources and willingness to recreate content in detail. Poor recall was associated with repetitive study and stopping at familiarity. In conclusion, Surface approaches to study must be discouraged through deliberate course design. Effective recall of anatomy is connected with an awareness of assessment and the ability to build understanding from the details and not just the big picture. Grant Funding Source : N/A