W.A. Reid, E. Duvall, & P. Evans.
Medical Teacher
August 2005, Vol. 27, Issue #5, pg. 401-407.
Review by: Linda Heun, Ph.D. <lheun@aacom.org>
The authors attempted to measure change in medical students' approaches to learning using the "Approaches to Study Skills Inventory for Students" (ASSIST) instrument which measures deep (subscales of seeking meaning, relating ideas, use of evidence, and interest in ideas), strategic (subscales of organized studying, time management, alertness to assessment, achievement, and monitoring effectiveness), and surface learning (subscales of lack of purpose, unrelated memorizing, syllabus-boundedness and fear of failure). Responding to criticisms that medical school curricula overburden students with detail and don't promote critical understanding, the authors made significant changes in students' second-year learning experiences to promote deep learning. They relied on research that suggested that a deep approach is encourages by:
- appropriate workload, avoiding factual overload
- clear goals and informative feedback
- clear, enthusiastic, empathic teaching focused on promoting conceptual change
- freedom of choice over learning content and method
- assessment which students perceive to reward understanding
- assessment through written work rather than multiple-choice questions
Results suggested that there was almost no change in learning approach based on changes made. Alternative explanations are considered.
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