An investigation of the self-evaluation skills of first year pharmacy students

Abstract

Introduction: Self-evaluation is an important skill in many fields of endeavour, including education and learning. Health-care workers, e.g. pharmacists, have a particular need to develop this skill. We therefore investigated the self-evaluation skills of several cohorts of pharmacy undergraduates during the first year of their course. Students were asked to predict their end of first year and end of course results, and these predictions were compared with their actual marks.Methods: A wide-ranging questionnaire was designed to interrogate a number of aspects of students' lives, including their perceptions of their present and future academic progress. Arrangements were made for it to be completed during a scheduled class (the captive audience approach).Results: The response rate to the questionnaire, using this approach, was 87%. Male students were found to predict better academic performance for their final degree than females, despite the fact that females outperformed males in both first and final year. Most students, both male and female, predicted better marks for themselves in the final year than in the first year. In general, the better students gave more realistic predictions than the weaker students.Conclusions: These findings suggest that first year students do not have good self-evaluation skills, and might benefit from formal opportunities to practise self-evaluation during their time at University.

Preceptors, Interns, and Newly Registered Pharmacists' Perceptions of New Zealand Pharmacy Graduates' Preparedness to Practice

“…13 In addition, many preceptors had the added responsibility of running a business, which may have caused a conflict of interest, and they may have perceived competence from a different perspective. 10 More preceptors perceived graduates to be competent in dispensing a prescription than in extemporaneous compounding, which was the competence rated lowest by all 3 groups of respondents. This may have been due to compounding skills being taught in the junior years (years 1 and 2) of the 4-year program, while counselling and dispensing of proprietary products and aseptic/sterile compounding were the focus of dispensing in senior years.…”

“…9 In the current study, graduates were required to self-assess their preparedness for practice; self-assessment (or selfevaluation) needs to progress through various stages. 10 Arguably, new pharmacy graduates have started only recently on the journey of professional self-assessment and may be inexperienced in its application. Characteristics reported to influence self-assessed competence include age and gender, with younger females perceiving themselves as more competent than older pharmacists.…”

Personal development planning: first-year Master of Pharmacy students' engagement with, and attitudes towards, reflective self-assessment

“…We must therefore ask ourselves whether first-year undergraduates can be expected to have any self-assessment ability. A recent study by Sharif et al [12] showed that at a macro level, where learners were asked to predict their end-of-year and end-of-course results in comparison with their classmates, first-year MPharm students do not have good self-assessment skills. However, it could be argued that such prediction merely constitutes calculating summative achievement to date and factoring in intention of future commitment to study, rather than selfassessing by evaluating current skills and knowledge.…”

Personal development planning: First-year Master of Pharmacy students' engagement with, and attitudes towards, reflective self-assessment

“…We must therefore ask ourselves whether first‐year undergraduates can be expected to have any self‐assessment ability. A recent study by Sharif et al 12 . showed that at a macro level, where learners were asked to predict their end‐of‐year and end‐of‐course results in comparison with their classmates, first‐year MPharm students do not have good self‐assessment skills.…”