Cargando…

Learning the facts in medical school is not enough: which factors predict successful application of procedural knowledge in a laboratory setting?

BACKGROUND: Medical knowledge encompasses both conceptual (facts or “what” information) and procedural knowledge (“how” and “why” information). Conceptual knowledge is known to be an essential prerequisite for clinical problem solving. Primarily, medical students learn from textbooks and often strug...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Schmidmaier, Ralf, Eiber, Stephan, Ebersbach, Rene, Schiller, Miriam, Hege, Inga, Holzer, Matthias, Fischer, Martin R
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3598785/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23433202
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-13-28
_version_ 1782262820594778112
author Schmidmaier, Ralf
Eiber, Stephan
Ebersbach, Rene
Schiller, Miriam
Hege, Inga
Holzer, Matthias
Fischer, Martin R
author_facet Schmidmaier, Ralf
Eiber, Stephan
Ebersbach, Rene
Schiller, Miriam
Hege, Inga
Holzer, Matthias
Fischer, Martin R
author_sort Schmidmaier, Ralf
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Medical knowledge encompasses both conceptual (facts or “what” information) and procedural knowledge (“how” and “why” information). Conceptual knowledge is known to be an essential prerequisite for clinical problem solving. Primarily, medical students learn from textbooks and often struggle with the process of applying their conceptual knowledge to clinical problems. Recent studies address the question of how to foster the acquisition of procedural knowledge and its application in medical education. However, little is known about the factors which predict performance in procedural knowledge tasks. Which additional factors of the learner predict performance in procedural knowledge? METHODS: Domain specific conceptual knowledge (facts) in clinical nephrology was provided to 80 medical students (3(rd) to 5(th) year) using electronic flashcards in a laboratory setting. Learner characteristics were obtained by questionnaires. Procedural knowledge in clinical nephrology was assessed by key feature problems (KFP) and problem solving tasks (PST) reflecting strategic and conditional knowledge, respectively. RESULTS: Results in procedural knowledge tests (KFP and PST) correlated significantly with each other. In univariate analysis, performance in procedural knowledge (sum of KFP+PST) was significantly correlated with the results in (1) the conceptual knowledge test (CKT), (2) the intended future career as hospital based doctor, (3) the duration of clinical clerkships, and (4) the results in the written German National Medical Examination Part I on preclinical subjects (NME-I). After multiple regression analysis only clinical clerkship experience and NME-I performance remained independent influencing factors. CONCLUSIONS: Performance in procedural knowledge tests seems independent from the degree of domain specific conceptual knowledge above a certain level. Procedural knowledge may be fostered by clinical experience. More attention should be paid to the interplay of individual clinical clerkship experiences and structured teaching of procedural knowledge and its assessment in medical education curricula.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3598785
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2013
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-35987852013-03-16 Learning the facts in medical school is not enough: which factors predict successful application of procedural knowledge in a laboratory setting? Schmidmaier, Ralf Eiber, Stephan Ebersbach, Rene Schiller, Miriam Hege, Inga Holzer, Matthias Fischer, Martin R BMC Med Educ Research Article BACKGROUND: Medical knowledge encompasses both conceptual (facts or “what” information) and procedural knowledge (“how” and “why” information). Conceptual knowledge is known to be an essential prerequisite for clinical problem solving. Primarily, medical students learn from textbooks and often struggle with the process of applying their conceptual knowledge to clinical problems. Recent studies address the question of how to foster the acquisition of procedural knowledge and its application in medical education. However, little is known about the factors which predict performance in procedural knowledge tasks. Which additional factors of the learner predict performance in procedural knowledge? METHODS: Domain specific conceptual knowledge (facts) in clinical nephrology was provided to 80 medical students (3(rd) to 5(th) year) using electronic flashcards in a laboratory setting. Learner characteristics were obtained by questionnaires. Procedural knowledge in clinical nephrology was assessed by key feature problems (KFP) and problem solving tasks (PST) reflecting strategic and conditional knowledge, respectively. RESULTS: Results in procedural knowledge tests (KFP and PST) correlated significantly with each other. In univariate analysis, performance in procedural knowledge (sum of KFP+PST) was significantly correlated with the results in (1) the conceptual knowledge test (CKT), (2) the intended future career as hospital based doctor, (3) the duration of clinical clerkships, and (4) the results in the written German National Medical Examination Part I on preclinical subjects (NME-I). After multiple regression analysis only clinical clerkship experience and NME-I performance remained independent influencing factors. CONCLUSIONS: Performance in procedural knowledge tests seems independent from the degree of domain specific conceptual knowledge above a certain level. Procedural knowledge may be fostered by clinical experience. More attention should be paid to the interplay of individual clinical clerkship experiences and structured teaching of procedural knowledge and its assessment in medical education curricula. BioMed Central 2013-02-22 /pmc/articles/PMC3598785/ /pubmed/23433202 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-13-28 Text en Copyright ©2013 Schmidmaier et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Schmidmaier, Ralf
Eiber, Stephan
Ebersbach, Rene
Schiller, Miriam
Hege, Inga
Holzer, Matthias
Fischer, Martin R
Learning the facts in medical school is not enough: which factors predict successful application of procedural knowledge in a laboratory setting?
title Learning the facts in medical school is not enough: which factors predict successful application of procedural knowledge in a laboratory setting?
title_full Learning the facts in medical school is not enough: which factors predict successful application of procedural knowledge in a laboratory setting?
title_fullStr Learning the facts in medical school is not enough: which factors predict successful application of procedural knowledge in a laboratory setting?
title_full_unstemmed Learning the facts in medical school is not enough: which factors predict successful application of procedural knowledge in a laboratory setting?
title_short Learning the facts in medical school is not enough: which factors predict successful application of procedural knowledge in a laboratory setting?
title_sort learning the facts in medical school is not enough: which factors predict successful application of procedural knowledge in a laboratory setting?
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3598785/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23433202
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-13-28
work_keys_str_mv AT schmidmaierralf learningthefactsinmedicalschoolisnotenoughwhichfactorspredictsuccessfulapplicationofproceduralknowledgeinalaboratorysetting
AT eiberstephan learningthefactsinmedicalschoolisnotenoughwhichfactorspredictsuccessfulapplicationofproceduralknowledgeinalaboratorysetting
AT ebersbachrene learningthefactsinmedicalschoolisnotenoughwhichfactorspredictsuccessfulapplicationofproceduralknowledgeinalaboratorysetting
AT schillermiriam learningthefactsinmedicalschoolisnotenoughwhichfactorspredictsuccessfulapplicationofproceduralknowledgeinalaboratorysetting
AT hegeinga learningthefactsinmedicalschoolisnotenoughwhichfactorspredictsuccessfulapplicationofproceduralknowledgeinalaboratorysetting
AT holzermatthias learningthefactsinmedicalschoolisnotenoughwhichfactorspredictsuccessfulapplicationofproceduralknowledgeinalaboratorysetting
AT fischermartinr learningthefactsinmedicalschoolisnotenoughwhichfactorspredictsuccessfulapplicationofproceduralknowledgeinalaboratorysetting