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A discrepancy in objective and subjective measures of knowledge: do some medical students with learning problems delude themselves?
Author(s) -
ANTHONEY T. R.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
medical education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.776
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1365-2923
pISSN - 0308-0110
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2923.1986.tb01036.x
Subject(s) - ranking (information retrieval) , weakness , test (biology) , psychology , class (philosophy) , medical education , interpretation (philosophy) , mathematics education , medicine , computer science , artificial intelligence , paleontology , biology , anatomy , programming language
Summary. In general, the rankings of first‐year medical students on a written test of long‐term neuroscience retention (RET) correlated strongly with how many of three neuroscience research presentations given within the following 2 days the students reported understanding. The lowest‐ranking sixth of the class on RET, however, reported understanding almost every lecture, even more than the highest‐ranking RET students did. Some of these low‐ranking students were aware that they had areas of weakness, but simply tolerated more of them without reporting overall lack of understanding. Other low‐ranking students, however, seemed genuinely unaware that they had any areas of weakness. This interpretation was further supported by data on small‐group problem‐solving performance during the first‐year neuroscience course, on use of human resources during the final first‐year neuroscience take‐home examination, and on performance during the third‐year clinical clerkships. Persistence of the problem, even after 5 months of instruction specifically designed to improve such information‐processing skills, suggests that correction may be difficult to achieve. The need for specific valid evaluative instruments and effective correctional techniques is noted.