Research and Development in Medical Education
Volume:4 Issue: 2, 2015

Peer assisted learning (PAL) is the expansion of knowledge and abilities through active assistance and guidance among groups of people who are not trained teachers, but still assist and support one another’s learning. The aim of this study was evaluation of PAL in teaching skills and learning limb anatomy for medical students.
In this quasi-experimental study, students entering Yasuj University of Medical Sciences (YUMS) in academic year 2012-13 were allocated to two equal groups of 28 participants, with PAL as the intervention group and conventional teaching methods as the comparison group at the beginning of the fourth week of the course. The course content for the PAL group was divided into seven roughly equal parts, the duties of students were determined and the time table was the same for two groups. Formative exams from each topic and summative exams about upper and lower limb anatomy were given. Abilities and skills of peer teachers were assessed by a researcher-made questionnaire through peer assessment. Data was analyzed using a paired t-test.
The mean scores of the PAL intervention group showed a significant statistical increase on seven out of ninth formative exams in relation to the comparison group (P The mean scores of PAL group were higher than those of the comparison group. Since learning in this method occurs through debate and discussion and acquisition of skills and communication grew in students, it could be an accountable approach.

Portfolio assessment is one of the new and most accurate assessment methods. The objective of this study was to examine the introduction of portfolios in the assessment of students’ learning in a personal protective devices course.
This study was a semi-experimental study that was conducted using the curriculum of the Ministry of Health for occupational health students from the school of health in Mashhad from 2013-2015. A personal protective devices course was taught and assessed with a modified essay in group A, a portfolio and a modified essay in group B and some tasks and a modified essay in group C. Each group had 35 students. Data were analyzed by ANOVA for comparison of means between groups; in addition, odds ratios with confidence intervals were calculated.
The total grades of students in the personal protective devices course were calculated, and in group A the mean score was 18.52±2.68, in group B it was 19.71±0.36 and in group C it was 18.93±1.0 (P=0.035). There were some differences between the three groups. Specific lessons, such as those on ear protectors, respiratory protector calculation and eye protectors were promoted, and the mean grades for these lessons were higher in group B, which used portfolio assessment.
According to the results, portfolio assessment might be useful for the evaluation of undergraduate students’ learning in practical aspects of personal protective devices.

Self-directed learning (SDL) is the most important factor in the future success of students in medical schools. In self-directed learning, each student takes responsibility for his/ her own learning activities. The main purpose of this study was first to determine students’ most common learning problems and then familiarize them with the concept of self-directed learning in a teaching workshop. Teaching emphasized SDL skills and processes.
This study used a pre-post interventional design and was conducted in Shiraz Medical School. The first step of the study was a self-administrated questionnaire to investigate the students’ study problems and in the second step all first year medical students (90 students) were involved in a teaching workshop. It is worth mentioning that inclusion criteria of the study included participants’ willingness to participate in the study, and exclusion criteria included unwillingness of participants to continue the study or not completing the questionnaires. Descriptive data analysis was performed by SPSS version 18.
The findings showed that the most important study problem was related to the amount of materials and content, according to 68 students (75.8%), and teaching SDL skills could increase their motivation to learn, according to 83 students (92%).
Teaching SDL skills to students can motivate their willingness to learn and could be used as a strategic approach to teaching. It seems universities should invest on students’ learning skills.

In view of the fact that motivation is linked directly to the learning process and educational achievement, this study endeavored to identify strategies to improve students’ educational achievement motivation at Guilan University of Medical Sciences.
To conduct this descriptive-analytical study, 368 students from Guilan University of Medical Sciences were selected using simple random sampling from 2013-2014. All of the Guilan University of Medical Sciences’ students met the general eligibility criteria except guest students. The questionnaire included five domains of economic, socio-cultural, educational, geo-regional, and personality factors in educational achievement motivation. Through using descriptive and inferential statistics (Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests), the compiled data were analyzed at the significance level of 0.05.
Data analysis revealed that socio-cultural factors have the maximum score (64.14 ± 9.92) and geo-regional factors have the minimum score (19.01±3.63) on the participants’ educational achievement motivation. What is more, a significant difference was revealed between educational field and educational effective factors as well as educational level and educational effective factors (p Given that the socio-cultural factors had the maximum score on the students’ educational achievement motivation, it is recommended that university officials take these factors into account, and attempt to plan to provide appropriate strategies to enhance their students’ motivation, specifically their educational achievement motivation.

Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is one of the most authentic ways to evaluate clinical skills. The present study aimed at evaluating the attitude of dental prostheses residents of the faculty of dentistry of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences toward this kind of examination.
In this cross sectional-descriptive study, two questionnaires were designed. One questionnaire dealt with nature of OSCE and the other dealt with the attitude of residents about OSCE. After holding the OSCE in July 2012, 2013, and 2014, the questionnaires were delivered to all dental prostheses residents of the Tabriz dental faculty. In total, 40 questionnaires were filled out within three years. Questions included five-choice items based on a Likert scale. Furthermore, the students’ scores in each exam were recorded to evaluate any possible relationship between the acquired grade and the student’s attitude toward the exam. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS17 software (α=5%).
Most residents (62.5%) referred to the large number of questions as a positive factor. In addition, a majority of residents (90%) suffered from high levels of stress during OSCE. There was a close relation between the grade acquired by the residents in the examination and their attitude to OSCE as well as their evaluation about the examination. The students with better grades had more positive attitudes toward OSCE.
Considering the satisfaction level of the students in this study, OSCE was held efficiently and may be considered as part of the training program of the residents.

Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (DOPS) is a valuable method to evaluate procedural skills. The aim of this study was to develop a DOPS test for assessment of first- and second-year orthopedic residents and evaluate its effects on their learning.
Seven residents and nine faculty members of the orthopedic department of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences participated in this study. A questionnaire containing twelve closed and four open questions was used for assessment. The acquired data were analyzed by descriptive statistics (frequency, percent, mean and standard deviation).
The results showed that residents’ performances were almost good (mean of good performances = 50.6%), the participants’ performances increased in the second stage (from 50.6% to 59.4%) but this increasing performance decreased in the third stage (from 59.4% to 39%). Most faculty members and residents believed that DOPS tests can have an effective role in facilitating students’ learning and also can help them to succeed in their final test. Some of the residents believed that DOPS tests decrease their stress in the final exam. Promoting students’ procedural skills and independent learning are the pros and a stressful test experience is the con of this study.
According to results of this study, DOPS tests had an effective role in facilitating students’ learning and skills. Test repetition for the second time is sufficient and useful for evaluating residents’ clinical and instrumental skills.

The Nationwide Medical Sciences Students purpose of the Olympiad is to discover student’s talents and encourage them to study. It seems that holding regional Olympiad exams to select students for the National Olympiad can help us to maintain fairness. The aim of this study is Management of Holding and Evaluating Clinical Reasoning Exams Using a Comprehensive System of Electronic Clinical Reasoning Exams.
Study was carried out in 2013 at the University of Medical Sciences on 750 students, 250 question designers, 37 responsibles. The nationwide universities held regional exams for the Student Olympiad in the area of clinical reasoning on specific dates and times. A quality review of the exams was done to study the strengths and weaknesses and to eliminate shortcomings and problems. Therefore, a researcher created a questionnaire with a reliability of R= 0.86 and validity was confirmed by experts, which was then loaded into the system. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS and descriptive statistics (Percent, Average, standard deviation).
The multimedia educational quality of the system, with an average of 69.36 ±22.79, the students and faculty members evaluated as good, with averages of 64.30 ±23.48 and 67.28 ± 22.43, respectively. The quality of the exam was evaluated as excellent by faculty members, with an average of 94.63 ±16.60 and 59.52 ±27.46, by the students.
Evaluating the quality of the system’s performance and its ability to assess students will lead to a clarification of its strengths and weaknesses. Finally, result in the creation of a high quality evaluation system.

The Educational Scholarship Festival is held every year to express appreciation for the educational Scholarship projects and elevate the promotion and development of the current educational procedures in universities both domestically and nationally. Considering the importance of the festival since its inception in 2008, we decided to conduct the present study with the aim of evaluating the Educational Scholarship Festival over the past seven years in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.
This cross-sectional study was done among 120 faculty members who took part in the festival. The data were collected through a questionnaire based on the CIPP evaluation model designed by the National Faculty Member Secretariat. Descriptive statistics were calculated with SPSS 21.
The results showed that 7.8% of participants were educational deputies of faculties, 3.1% were directors of the Medical Education Development Center (over 6 years), 1.6 % were educational experts, and 87.5% were faculty members, of whom 43.1% were members of the refereeing committee for previous festivals. Overall, 80% of participants had taken part in several festivals and 63.9% participated in providing processes. In a general overview of the festival evaluation, the results were as follows: context (mean 44.92 ± 29.25), input (mean 47.90 ± 34.12), and product (mean 42.56 ± 27.1) were evaluated as moderate and process (mean 58.36 ± 30.35) was evaluated as good. The overall satisfaction of the participants with the festival was also assessed as good (mean 71.68± 24.02).
With regard to the results, it is hoped that the quality of Educational Scholarship Festivals improves at medical sciences universities through an improvement of products and modification of the inputs and processes.

Due to the importance of holding effective scientific Olympiads for medical sciences students, this study aimed to evaluate experts’ viewpoints in regard to their necessity, costs, achievements, barriers and solutions.
In this qualitative study, required data were collected using open-ended questions through self-development questionnaires, which were filled out by experts. Data were analyzed through content-analysis methods. To select participants, a purpose-based sampling method was applied up to the point of information saturation. Thus, this study was performed with 20 individuals.
The main necessity and philosophy of holding Olympiads expressed by the experts were: promoting health sector performance, extension of interrelationships between universities, development of scientific competition and incensement of students’ creativity. The majority of participants believed that the achievements of holding these Olympiads are negligible versus their costs. The most important barriers were: absence of appropriate relationships between universities, lack of proper support for holding these Olympiads, the low motivation of professors, noninterested students and the shortage of resources and facilities. Furthermore, the most important solutions included: performance evaluation of previous Olympiads, increasing incentives and motivations as well as suitable planning.
According to experts’ viewpoints, although holding scientific Olympiads is necessary for medical students, during past years, the achievements of such Olympiads versus theirs costs seem negligible and there are lots of barriers in the path of achieving their goals and philosophy.

Scientific Olympiads and the Talented Student Office (TSO) are two strategies for the identification and training of gifted and talented medical science students. The aim of the present study is to identify students’ viewpoints about the facilities and privileges of the TSO in stimulating them to participate in the Medical Science Olympiad.
This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study and all participating in the 4th and 5 National Medical Science Olympiad in Iran from 2011 to 21012 were selected using the census method. The validity of a researcher-made questionnaire was confirmed by experts. The content validity index (CVI) was 0.95. Reliability was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha (a=0.8) and the test-retest method (ICC=0.85). Descriptive statistics including frequency, percent, mean and standard deviation were calculated by SPSS 19.
In total, 261 students responded to the questionnaires. About 36% of participants in this study had low or very low familiarity with regulations of the TSO. Continuing education to higher levels (master’s, Ph.D., residency) and being recruited as a faculty member were the most motivational factors for participation and the least was the permission to select more courses (up to 27 units).
Continuing education to higher levels and recruitment as a faculty member were two important factors for participating in the National Medical Science Olympiad. Therefore, personnel in the TSO and related managers should prompt medical students to these centers by highlighting the facilities.

Medical students undergo many stressors during various stages of medical education and must learn to cope with their new situation. Some studies have reported that stress management training methods have significant effects on decreasing stress in medical students. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a “Stress Management Training Session” from medical students’ viewpoints.
This study design employed a qualitative phenomenological research method. Using a goal-directed sampling method, medical students in the psychiatry ward during 3 months, participated in a “Stress Management Training Session”. In this section, the nature of stress and some simple techniques for stress management were taught practically. After 1 month, participants cooperated in 3 focus group discussions. In the FGDs students explained their experiences in the stress management session and its effectiveness. After recording and writing discussions, subjects’ content was analyzed.
In total, 6 themes and 2:10 subthemes materialized from data analysis. In the students’ opinions, learning and using stress management techniques had good effects on their stress, sleep and headaches. Although some students didn’t notice to the efficacy on concentration, others believed stress management techniques were useful for learning and concentration.
Based on the medical students’ opinions, learning and using stress management techniques had good effects on their stress, sleep and headaches and may improve concentration and learning quality.

Quality Improvement projects are an important part of residency education in the United States and are required for accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Participation in standard chart-based quality improvement had failed to generate excitement among residents in our program. The objective of our innovation was to inspire interest in quality improvement among our residents.
Our residency program instituted a book discussion group. Attendance and participation of attendees was recorded, and residents were sent a follow-up survey one month after the activity to gauge their impressions.
Out of 16 residents in the program, 12 attended the discussion group, and all attendees participated in the discussion. The follow-up survey revealed that 10/11 (91%) of respondents had read at least part of the book and 11/11 (100%) wanted to have another book discussion group in the upcoming year.
We believe that the use of a book discussion group can be a novel, inspiring strategy to teach quality improvement in a residency program.

Regarding the educational goals of university and academic performance, it seems that organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is one of the effective variables in increasing the educational performance of university faculty members. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and educational performance of the faculty members of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in 2013-14.
Researchers selected 127 faculty members and 1,120 students from different grades in order to investigate the relationship between altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, civic virtue and respect and the educational performance of faculty members. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used in this method. Data were analyzed using SPSS 21 software and the significance level of 0.05.
There was a significant relationship between altruism and educational performance (P =0.043). There was a significant relationship between conscientiousness and educational performance (p=0.046). A significant relationship was observed between sportsmanship and educational performance (p=0.004). There was no significant relationship between civic virtue and educational performance (p=0.98). A significant relationship was observed between respect and educational performance (P>0.001). There was no relationship between citizenship behavior and gender of the faculty members (P> 0.05).
The results of this study showed that the more faculty members have the spirit of cooperation and assistance to colleagues and students and try to understand the specific situations that students face, the more effective they are in increasing the educational performance at the university level.