Medical Student Progress Examination Performance and Its Relationship With Metacognition, Critical Thinking, and Self-Regulated Learning Strategies

Abstract

Purpose Metacognition and critical thinking are essential for academic success. The relationship between these components and medical student learning, as assessed with progress examinations, informs curriculum development and efforts to ensure learning progression of all students. This study assessed learning mechanisms by modeling medical students’ progress test performance longitudinally at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. Method Medical students’ (n = 184) medical knowledge was assessed 5 times from fall 2017 through spring 2019 using the Comprehensive Basic Science Examination (CBSE). Structural equation modeling was conducted to investigate associations between 3 latent structures—metacognitive awareness, critical thinking, and self-regulation—and their relationship with students’ initial CBSE scores and growth in such scores. The authors measured metacognitive knowledge and regulation by the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory, critical thinking skills by the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, and self-regulation by the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory. Results Students’ aggregate performance on 5 CBSE scores grew 31.0% the first semester, 16.5% the second semester, 30.1% the third semester, and 22.4% the last semester. Critical thinking had a significant positive relationship with initial performance ( JOURNAL/acmed/04.03/00001888-202102000-00048/inline-graphic1/v/2023-07-18T003513Z/r/image-tiff 1.956, P < .001), self-regulation had a significant positive relationship with growth ( JOURNAL/acmed/04.03/00001888-202102000-00048/inline-graphic2/v/2023-07-18T003513Z/r/image-tiff 3.287, P < .05), and metacognitive awareness had a negative relationship with growth of student performance in the progress test ( JOURNAL/acmed/04.03/00001888-202102000-00048/inline-graphic3/v/2023-07-18T003513Z/r/image-tiff −3.426, P < .01). Conclusions This structural equation framework is useful for examining the relationships among 3 latent structures—critical thinking, metacognition, and self-regulation—and their relationships with students’ progress scores in academic achievement. The initial status of progress examination scores was explained by students’ critical thinking ability, but their learning growth on the progress scores was explained by their self-regulation and metacognitive ability. These findings help explain student performance on standardized progress examinations and can aid in interventions to promote student success.

The Mediating Role of Critical Thinking Abilities in the Relationship Between English as a Foreign Language Learners’ Writing Performance and Their Language Learning Strategies

“…In addition, the relationships between intermediate EFL learners’ learning strategies subsets, including cognitive, metacognitive, affective, social, memory-related, and compensation strategies, and their writing strategies were all significant, meaning all the six subsets were significantly correlated with writing performances. The result of this study is in line with the studies done by Chamot (2004) , Berridge (2018) , Al-Jarrah et al (2019) , Teng (2020) , Chang et al (2021) , and Parra et al (2021) in that metacognitive strategies together with its subsets of planning, organizing, and evaluating strategies are related to EFL learners’ writing performances. Besides, this study also confirmed the findings of Pradhan and Das (2021) and Tran and Tran (2021) that there was a positive correlation between English academic achievement and metacognition.…”

“…Even though many studies have been done to implement learning strategies, the idea of learning strategies is still obscure. Dörnyei and Skehan (2003) , Rajaee Pitenoee et al (2017) , and Chang et al (2021) assert that the opinion behind learning strategies has not been critically examined because the concepts and definitions have been inconsistent so far. Critical thinking abilities play a significant role in language learning and teaching.…”

The best mirror of the students' longitudinal performance: Portfolio or structured oral exam assessment at clerkship?

“…Moreover, the training of health professionals also involves promoting self‐regulated learning and metacognition as higher skills, with a growing consensus that reflection is an important attribute for health professions students, which also implies faculty development strategies to support them 41 . Koole et al 42 .…”

“…22,40 Moreover, the training of health professionals also involves promoting self-regulated learning and metacognition as higher skills, with a growing consensus that reflection is an important attribute for health professions students, which also implies faculty development strategies to support them. 41 Koole et al 42 identified reflection scores as a significant predictor for health promotion and community work competence scores in the context of portfoliobased learning in an undergraduate social dentistry course.…”

Not Just About Knowledge: Add More Measurements for a More Comprehensive Picture of Medical Student Learning

“…To the Editor: Chang and colleagues are to be commended for their longitudinal research into the growth of medical students' knowledge, and how it relates to metacognition, critical thinking, and self-regulation strategies. 1 Following students for 18 months and assessing them at multiple time points is no small undertaking, but I have questions about the methodology.…”