21st-century medical education is focused on healthcare equity by creating opportunities for students who are from underrepresented minority groups and non-traditional backgrounds to pursue medicine. Institutions that have spearheaded this movement have found a wide variation in the baseline knowledge, skills, and attitudes of their incoming medical students. Ensuring that these students meaningfully transition into and progress through medical school without negatively impacting their performance or wellness is a challenge that needs to be strategically addressed. This chapter will outline the challenges associated with the transition of matriculating medical students, the importance of a curriculum that promotes equity, the role of a developmental learning environment in supporting student academic success, and guidelines to use coaching to enhance student engagement.
Constant self-evaluation and lifelong learning skills are some of the key characteristics of competent healthcare professionals. Additionally, the ability to set goals and use feedback to enhance performance has been identified as one of the core competencies for entering medical students. This chapter uses educational theories to describe the lifelong learning skills required for academic success. This chapter also provides recommendations to pre-health programs on strategies that support the development of these skills. The recommendations include general strategies to foster self-regulated learning and specific academic coaching strategies that promote the holistic development of pre-health professional students.
In response to students’ traditional struggles understanding the physiological dynamics of the cardiac cycle, the first author conceived a novel model, the Wright table of the cardiac cycle, that helps students visualize the heart working as a pump. This model shows direction of blood flow in response to pressure changes within cardiac chambers and major vessels, correlated with valve opening and closing as well as electrical events and auscultatory findings. Whether students could create and use Wright tables on their own as part of their active learning was unknown. Hypothesis We hypothesized that in mixed groups of year 1 & 2 medical students, that students would be capable of 1) creating versions of the Wright table for specific pathologies and 2) using this table as a teaching and learning tool to increase cardiac cycle and cardiac pathophysiology knowledge. Methods This initial phase of a multi‐phase project was designed to validate the Wright Table as an active learning tool for cardiac physiology and pathophysiology using qualitative and quantitative data. Following IRB approval, teams of 2‐3 students from research and cardiology clubs were each assigned 1 of 8 valvular disorders following their participation in an educational session on the Wright table for the normal cardiac cycle. Over three weeks, each team created a model for their condition citing resources used. Student‐crafted Wright tables were presented in a Delphi‐type session, allowing student attendees to choose, by anonymous vote, the best model representing each assigned cardiac pathology. Data collected and analyzed included qualitative process and progress feedback from student groups during model development; quantitative measurement of cardiac cycle physiology before and after initial exposure to the Wright table; and quantitative measurement of student understanding of cardiac valvular pathophysiology before and after the final Delphi session. Results 68 students began the study, and 46 finished all assignments. Of 32 starting groups, 22 tables with resources were submitted for Delphi review. In pre‐and post‐tests for valvular disorders, students demonstrated a significant increase in understanding valvular pathophysiology (36% to 47%, p< 0.001) after the Delphi session. The qualitative data revealed that the models that received the highest votes (>70%) were clear, simple, provided arrows to indicate blood flow, compared between either right and left heart or between normal and diseased heart, emphasized the damaged valve, highlighted the heart sounds and murmur, and provided brief notes on opening and closing of valves during the cardiac cycle. Conclusion The results have provided an initial level of validation for the Wright table of the cardiac cycle as an effective teaching tool for certain pathologies. The table can be used as an active learning tool by students to illustrate changes in cardiac pathophysiology in valvular disorders. Data from this process will inform the further development of this teaching tool. The next phase o...
Academic self-efficacy has been identified as a predictor of success among students. Students' beliefs in their own ability to succeed academically can influence their levels of perseverance and effort. However, self-efficacy levels are impacted by prior knowledge, lived experiences, and social support systems. Students from diverse cultural backgrounds might display varying levels of self-efficacy leading to performance differences, high attrition, and low retention. Supporting the academic success of diverse students can be achieved by empowering them to identify their strengths and areas of improvement and setting appropriate learning goals. Academic coaching is a powerful student-centered approach to foster critical self-reflection, goal orientation, and autonomy. This chapter will outline the benefits of academic coaching and provide strategies to help students maximize their potential.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.