Pharmacology and therapeutics resource session attendance and academic performance of pre-clerkship medical students in problem-based learning curricula

Abstract

Background The relationship between large-group classroom attendance by students and test achievement in problem-based learning (PBL) curricula is unclear. This study examined the correlation between attendance at resource sessions (hybrid lectures in the PBL curriculum) and test scores achieved in pharmacology and determined whether the score achieved was related to student gender. Methods A cross-sectional observational study over one academic year of 1404 pre-clerkship medical students was performed. Class attendance during pharmacology resource sessions and MCQ test scores achieved in pharmacology were analysed. Results The percentage of students’ attendance in resource sessions declined over three years of the programme, from 78.7 ± 27.5 in unit I to 22.1 ± 35.6 (mean ± SD) in unit IX. A significant but weakly positive correlation was evident between attendance and achievement in pharmacology ( r = 0.280; p < 0.0001). The mean score of the students who attended > 50% of the resource sessions was significantly higher ( p < 0.0001). Students who attended ≤50% were more likely to achieve lower tertile scores. The mean score achieved and the number of higher tertile scorers were higher among students who attended > 50% of the resource sessions. Although female students’ attendance was significantly higher, no significant gender-related differences in either mean scores or top grades achieved were found. Conclusions In a PBL curriculum, the classroom attendance of students in pharmacology declined during the pre-clerkship phase. A weak positive correlation was found between attendance and academic achievement, as measured by MCQ test scores. Factors other than motivation and attendance may confound gender-based academic performance and merit further research.

A Systematic Review of the Relationship Between Lecture Attendance and Academic Outcomes for Students Studying the Human Biosciences

“…Correlation analysis is a good way to determine associations and was used in several (Hamdi, 2006;Jaykaran et al, 2011;Stegers-Jager et al, 2012;Demir et al, 2012;Al Khaja et al, 2019) but not all the studies (Khan et al, 2003;BinSaeed et al, 2009;Selvig et al, 2014;Popovic et al, 2018). Three studies showed moderate associations ( (Hamdi, 2006;Jaykaran et al, 2011;Stegers-Jager et al, 2012), one study showed moderate to weak associations (Al Khaja et al, 2019) and one study showed a weak association between lecture attendance and academic outcomes (Demir et al, 2012). In addition, one of the studies using correlation analysis was able to show that the students had better outcomes for the lectures they attended than for the ones they skipped, and that this was true for both the first-time and repeat takers (Demir et al, 2017).…”

“…A recent study from Bahrain suggests that there is weak association between attendance at lectures amongst medical students in a pharmacology course integrated in their 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th years (Table 5). Overall, the association was very weak with an r value of 0.28 (Al Khaja et al, 2019). A complication of this study is that associations are described as weak when they are lower than 0.30, which is considered to be the cut-off for weak associations by some, but not others (https://www.dummies.com/education/math/statistics/how-to-interpret-acorrelation-coefficient-r/ and http://www.statstutor.ac.uk/resources/uploaded/pearsons.pdf.…”

“…Some of the studies used a lecture attendance register of some sort (Khan et al, 2003;Hamdi, 2006;Jaykaran et al, 2011;Demir et al, 2012;Popovic et al, 2018;Al Khaja et al, 2019) whereas others used self-reported/surveys of lecture attendance (BinSaeed et al, 2009;Stegers-Jager et al, 2012;Selvig et al, 2014). As one study failed to give the percentage of students who answered the survey (Selvig et al, 2014), it is not known whether the sample is likely to be representative.…”

“…A major difference between this and other studies is that a component of marks was given to attendance, which may have contributed to the high attendance observed in this study and skewed the correlation analysis. Of these nine studies showing a positive relationship between lecture attendance and academic outcomes, seven did not indicate whether lecture recordings were available (Khan et al, 2003;Hamdi, 2006;BinSaeed et al, 2009;Jaykaran et al, 2011;Stegers-Jager et al, 2012;Demir et al, 2014;Al Khaja et al, 2019) and two reported the availability of lecture recordings (Selvig et al, 2014;Popovic et al, 2018).…”

Relationship between Didactic Attendance and Average Ophthalmic Knowledge Assessment Program Performance

“…There are several cross-sectional studies in the literature that show a statistically significant positive correlation between the relative quantity of didactic lectures with medical learn-ing. [3][4][5] These studies evaluated graduate medical learning in variety of disciplines and topics. The study presented here provides additional evidence to suggest that traditional face-to-face lecture-based didactic sessions have a role in improving medical knowledge.…”