Student learning outcomes, perceptions and beliefs in the context of strengthening research integration into the first year of medical school

Abstract

Research integrated into undergraduate education is important in order for medical students to understand and value research for later clinical practice. Therefore, attempts are being made to strengthen the integration of research into teaching from the first year onwards. First-year students may interpret attempts made to strengthen research integration differently than intended by teachers. This might be explained by student beliefs about learning and research as well as student perceptions of the learning environment. In general, student perceptions of the learning environment play a pivotal role in fostering student learning outcomes. This study aims to determine whether a curriculum change intended to promote research integration fosters student learning outcomes and student perceptions of research integrated into teaching. To serve this purpose, three subsequent cohorts of first-year students were compared, one before and two after a curriculum change. Learning outcomes of these students were measured using scores on a national progress test of 921 students and assessments of a sample of 100 research reports of a first-year student research project. 746 Students filled out the Student Perceptions of Research Integration Questionnaire. The findings suggest that learning outcomes of these students, that is, scores on research related test items of the progress test and the quality of research reports, were better than those of students before the curriculum change.

Student Perceptions of Research in an Occupational Therapy Doctoral Program: A Cross-Sectional Survey

“…Also the Visser-Wijnveen et al (2016) study was conducted at a research intensive university and this study was not. The SPRIQ scores of the current study were also higher than the mean scores reported by Veriijken et al (2018) who studied research perceptions of first year medical students. Within this study, several questions included the involvement and contribution that professors had on the OTD students.…”

Student perspective of classroom and distance learning during COVID-19 pandemic in the undergraduate dental study program Universitas Indonesia

“…Despite these limitations, the results of this study offer valuable information on the current perspectives of dental students with regard to full distance learning methods implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. As student acceptance of learning method play an important role in creating an effective learning environment [ 27 , 28 ]. Due to the uncertainty in this COVID-19 pandemic time, whereby the situation is still changes, it is essential to design the learning method that is most suited to current situation and to have appropriate plan once it is permissible for classroom teaching to resume its activities, taken into consideration all the necessary protocols for safety and health protection [ 29 ].…”

Fostering the physician–scientist workforce: a prospective cohort study to investigate the effect of undergraduate medical students’ motivation for research on actual research involvement

“…Subsequently, previous studies investigated motivation as an outcome measure, describing student motivation or interest for research as the ultimate outcome 32–34. For instance, Vereijken et al investigated interest and motivation for research after a curriculum change to strengthen research integration with education and showed that students’ motivation for research increased when research was integrated more in the curriculum 35. Moreover, in our previous study, we established that students are highly motivated for research when entering medical school and that self-efficacy beliefs, perceptions of research and curiosity are important factors that influence motivation for research 36…”