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Investigating a Quantitative Measure of Student Self-authorship for Undergraduate Medical Education

CONSTRUCT: In this study, the authors investigated the validity of a quantitative measure of self-authorship among medical students. Self-authorship is a cognitive-structural theory incorporating the ability to define one’s beliefs, identity, and social relations to operate in a complex, ambiguous e...

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Autores principales: Fallar, Robert, Hanss, Basil, Sefcik, Roberta, Goodson, Lucy, Kase, Nathan, Katz, Craig
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6931145/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31903426
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2382120519896789
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author Fallar, Robert
Hanss, Basil
Sefcik, Roberta
Goodson, Lucy
Kase, Nathan
Katz, Craig
author_facet Fallar, Robert
Hanss, Basil
Sefcik, Roberta
Goodson, Lucy
Kase, Nathan
Katz, Craig
author_sort Fallar, Robert
collection PubMed
description CONSTRUCT: In this study, the authors investigated the validity of a quantitative measure of self-authorship among medical students. Self-authorship is a cognitive-structural theory incorporating the ability to define one’s beliefs, identity, and social relations to operate in a complex, ambiguous environment. BACKGROUND: Competency-based medical education (CBME) provides learners with the opportunity to self-direct their education at an appropriate pace to develop and exhibit required behaviors while incorporating functioning relationships with supervisors and trainers. Students must develop skills to adjust and succeed in this educational climate. Self-authorship is a theoretical lens that is relevant to identifying the development of the skills necessary to succeed in a CBME curriculum. Understanding the level of attained self-authorship by medical students can provide important information about which professional characteristics are more prevalent among those who are more self-authored and about how students succeed in medical school. Although there are calls in the extant literature for the application of self-authorship in medical education, there is no quantitative measure to assess its development among medical students. APPROACH: The authors developed a survey to measure self-authorship, including a free text question regarding the thought process around a hypothetical ethical situation during training. Data were collected in 2014 and 2015 from undergraduate medical students and analyzed using factor analysis and qualitative analysis of the free text. Validity evidence was sought regarding content, internal structure, and relationships to other variables. RESULTS: Analysis supports the use of a 22-item instrument to assess 3 constructs of self-authorship: asserting independence and autonomy, knowledge processing, and sense of self in ethical situations. Content analysis of text responses supported the ability of the instrument to separate development, or a lack thereof, of self-authorship. CONCLUSIONS: The authors identified an instrument that measures multidimensional, higher-order characteristics that intersect with self-authorship. This instrument can be useful at a macro level for curricular and student assessment of self-authorship. Development of these characteristics can help foster success in a CBME environment and support curricular efforts in this regard. Understanding a student’s level of self-authorship can help identify areas for support as well as allow for comparisons of different student characteristics.
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spelling pubmed-69311452020-01-03 Investigating a Quantitative Measure of Student Self-authorship for Undergraduate Medical Education Fallar, Robert Hanss, Basil Sefcik, Roberta Goodson, Lucy Kase, Nathan Katz, Craig J Med Educ Curric Dev Original Research CONSTRUCT: In this study, the authors investigated the validity of a quantitative measure of self-authorship among medical students. Self-authorship is a cognitive-structural theory incorporating the ability to define one’s beliefs, identity, and social relations to operate in a complex, ambiguous environment. BACKGROUND: Competency-based medical education (CBME) provides learners with the opportunity to self-direct their education at an appropriate pace to develop and exhibit required behaviors while incorporating functioning relationships with supervisors and trainers. Students must develop skills to adjust and succeed in this educational climate. Self-authorship is a theoretical lens that is relevant to identifying the development of the skills necessary to succeed in a CBME curriculum. Understanding the level of attained self-authorship by medical students can provide important information about which professional characteristics are more prevalent among those who are more self-authored and about how students succeed in medical school. Although there are calls in the extant literature for the application of self-authorship in medical education, there is no quantitative measure to assess its development among medical students. APPROACH: The authors developed a survey to measure self-authorship, including a free text question regarding the thought process around a hypothetical ethical situation during training. Data were collected in 2014 and 2015 from undergraduate medical students and analyzed using factor analysis and qualitative analysis of the free text. Validity evidence was sought regarding content, internal structure, and relationships to other variables. RESULTS: Analysis supports the use of a 22-item instrument to assess 3 constructs of self-authorship: asserting independence and autonomy, knowledge processing, and sense of self in ethical situations. Content analysis of text responses supported the ability of the instrument to separate development, or a lack thereof, of self-authorship. CONCLUSIONS: The authors identified an instrument that measures multidimensional, higher-order characteristics that intersect with self-authorship. This instrument can be useful at a macro level for curricular and student assessment of self-authorship. Development of these characteristics can help foster success in a CBME environment and support curricular efforts in this regard. Understanding a student’s level of self-authorship can help identify areas for support as well as allow for comparisons of different student characteristics. SAGE Publications 2019-12-24 /pmc/articles/PMC6931145/ /pubmed/31903426 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2382120519896789 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Research
Fallar, Robert
Hanss, Basil
Sefcik, Roberta
Goodson, Lucy
Kase, Nathan
Katz, Craig
Investigating a Quantitative Measure of Student Self-authorship for Undergraduate Medical Education
title Investigating a Quantitative Measure of Student Self-authorship for Undergraduate Medical Education
title_full Investigating a Quantitative Measure of Student Self-authorship for Undergraduate Medical Education
title_fullStr Investigating a Quantitative Measure of Student Self-authorship for Undergraduate Medical Education
title_full_unstemmed Investigating a Quantitative Measure of Student Self-authorship for Undergraduate Medical Education
title_short Investigating a Quantitative Measure of Student Self-authorship for Undergraduate Medical Education
title_sort investigating a quantitative measure of student self-authorship for undergraduate medical education
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6931145/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31903426
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2382120519896789
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