Impact of student choice on academic performance: cross-sectional and longitudinal observations of a student cohort

Student choice plays a prominent role in the undergraduate curriculum in many contemporary medical schools. A key unanswered question relates to its impact on academic performance. We studied 301 students who were in years 2 and 3 of their medical studies in 2005/06. We investigated the relationship...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC medical education 2013-02, Vol.13 (1), p.26-26, Article 26
Main Authors: Murphy, Michael J, Seneviratne, Rohini DeA, Cochrane, Lynda, Davis, Margery H, Mires, Gary J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Achievement
Choice Behavior
College students
Core curriculum
Correlation
Curriculum
Curriculum planning
Design
Education
Education, Medical, Undergraduate - organization & administration
Education, Medical, Undergraduate - statistics & numerical data
Educational Change
Educational Measurement
Educational Objectives
Educational Status
Employee performance
Female
Gender
Humans
Independent study
Intellectual Development
Learning
Literature Reviews
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Medical colleges
Medical Education
Medical research
Medical schools
Medical students
Medicine, Experimental
Methods
Objectives
Physicians
Preferences
Quality Assurance
Quality Control
Sex Factors
Small Group Instruction
Students
Students, Medical - psychology
Students, Medical - statistics & numerical data
Studies
Summative Evaluation
Undergraduate Study
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Summary:Student choice plays a prominent role in the undergraduate curriculum in many contemporary medical schools. A key unanswered question relates to its impact on academic performance. We studied 301 students who were in years 2 and 3 of their medical studies in 2005/06. We investigated the relationship between SSC grade and allocated preference. Separately, we examined the impact of 'self-proposing' (students designing and completing their own SSC) on academic performance in other, standard-set, summative assessments throughout the curriculum. The chi-squared test was used to compare academic performance in SSC according to allocated preference. Generalised estimating equations were used to investigate the effect of self-proposing on performance in standard-set examinations. (1) Performance in staff-designed SSC was not related to allocated preference. (2) Performance in year 1 main examination was one of the key predictors of performance in written and OSCE examinations in years 2, 3 and 4 (p
ISSN:1472-6920
1472-6920
DOI:10.1186/1472-6920-13-26