Medical Students' Goals, Methods and Opinions on Self-directed Learning and Analysis of Self-assessment

Huh, Jungwon; Han, Jaejin; Im, Hyunjung

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to investigate the goals, methods and opinions of medical students on self-directed learning (SDL) and to compare the self-assessments with faculty-evaluations. METHODS: The study group included 90 medical students doing their clerkship in the department of Laboratory Medicine, Mokdong Hospital, Ewha Womans University, School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea, from August 2005 to October 2006. Students were asked to review cases, formulate learning goals, implement appropriate learning strategies and present learning outcomes. Students' opinions on SDL were collected. Their self-assessments were compared with the faculty evaluation scores using the same checklist. Three groups were defined according to the faculty scores: scores >12, high; scores 10~12, middle; scores <9, low. RESULTS: SDL was helpful in increasing confidence in students' own learning abilities and in raising interest in the patient-doctor relationship. Some students had difficulty formulating learning goals on their own. The mean of the self-assessments was significantly higher than that of faculty mean (11.8+/-2.1 vs. 10.9+/-2.3, p=.005). Rater agreement by items was approximately 30%. There was significant interaction between raters and group. Among the 'high' group, 55% under-rated their scores to middle or low levels, whereas 66% of the 'low' group rated themselves higher to high or middle levels. Spearman's correlation coefficient between faculty's and student's scores was r=.219 (p=.038) and 4.4% of the faculty evaluations was predicted by the self-assessment scores. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that SDL is an effective learning tool during clerkship. Since students' scores did not correlate with those of the faculty's, students need to develop appropriate self-assessment skills.