Educational Research in Medical Sciences
Volume:8 Issue: 1, Jun 2019

Response to new expectations of society, government and industry has changed the role of universities. Nowadays, universities are expected to play a more active role in national and regional economic developments. Indeed, the emergence of entrepreneurial universities is a response to this expectation, which has entailed forming a new face for the new role of universities. The purpose of this study was to validate an entrepreneurial university model with a grounded theory approach. The population in the qualitative part was the entrepreneurial university experts in universities in the west of Iran, of whom 12 were selected by snowball sampling. The study population in the quantitative part included 396, of whom 211 were selected as the sample. The confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to validate and test the conceptual model in SPSS, LISREL and PLS software. Results of the qualitative part revealed 201 concepts, 21 categories and 6 main classes placed in form of a paradigmatic model with causal conditions, core category, context conditions, intervening conditions, strategies and consequences. Additionally, based on the results of quantitative section, the fitness indices (χ2/df = 2.114, GFI = 0.91, AGFI = 0.89, NFI = 0.97, CFI = 0.98, RFI = 0.97, RMR = 0.015, and RMSEA = 0.073) showed that obtained model has favorable fit and 6 main aspects and their conditions can explain the variable entrepreneurial university. Based on the results of the validation, the model and the conditions proposed in the study can evaluate an entrepreneurial university.

The academic status of students makes up an essential component of educational assessments.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of basic science courses on the academic status of medical students in Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences (KUMS), Kermanshah, Iran.

The demographic information of the medical students collected in the present cross-sectional study over a three-year period included age, gender, quota for the Iranian university entrance examination (UEE), interval between receiving high school diploma and admission to university, type of high school diploma, high school GPA and score of specialized and general courses in the UEE. Moreover, the academic data included scores of courses, GPA of the basic science courses and score of the comprehensive basic sciences exam were collected using a questionnaire, and analyzed in SPSS V. 16 using descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, Tukey’s test and the chi-square test.

The majority of the students (94.7%) had a high school diploma in experimental sciences and belonged to regions 2 (51.6%) and 3 (37%) of the UEE. Significant differences were observed between different groups of the students admitted to university in terms of age (P < 0.05), although no significant differences were identified in terms of gender, type of high school diploma, UEE quota and high school GPA. The highest scores of specialized courses in percentage in the UEE were associated with biology and chemistry. Significant correlations were also observed between the GPA of basic science courses and high school GPA in all the three groups of students admitted to university (P < 0.05).

The academic status and related factors were found to be nearly the same in the medical students of KUMS in three successive years of admission, and they were affected by constant factors, including high school GPA and GPA of basic science courses.

Educational achievement is related to positive and negative feelings. One of the important purposes of educational systems is to enhance students’ academic self-concept. This study aimed to assess the effect of the jigsaw approach on improving self-concept among university students of educational sciences. This quasi-experimental study had a pretest-posttest design with a control group. A total of 60 undergraduate students of educational sciences at Farhangian University in Sistan-Baluchestan province were selected and divided into two equal groups of 30 each, i.e. an experimental group and a control group. Liu and Wang academic self-concept scale was applied as a data collection tool and twelve 90-minute sessions of the jigsaw approach were collaboratively conducted on the students who met the inclusion criteria in 6 weeks (two sessions per week). Data were analyzed using a multivariate analysis of covariance. Results of the one-way analysis of covariance show that academic self-concept and the subscales of academic confidence and academic effort are significantly different between the control and experimental groups (error level < 5%). The jigsaw approach had a direct effect on academic effort and improved students’ academic self-concept. Academic self-concept plays an essential role in students’ achievement. Some students do not know how to act and learn in groups, so they isolate themselves. This isolation can lead to feelings of loneliness or fear of others, but collaborative and cooperative approaches such as jigsaw technique help shape students’ self-concept and communicate with others.

Bad study habits are considered one of the main causes of students’ academic failure and can have an important impact on their education and their occupational prospect.

This research was conducted to investigate the study habits of dental students of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in southwest of Iran.

In this descriptive research, Palsane and Sharma study habits inventory was used to measure students’ habits. Census sampling method was used and all students of general dentistry were selected. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data in SPSS version 22.

A total of 160 students (Doctor of Dental Medicine) who had passed at least one year of studying participated in this research. Based on the results, the mean scores were as follows: budgeting time 5.1/10, physical condition 6.9/12, reading ability 8.22/16, note-taking 2.1/6, learning motivation 7.2/12, memory 4.4/8, taking examination 10.6/20, and health 2.5/6. Therefore, according to the mean scores of the inventory, the study habits of the students under study were relatively favorable and moderate, 47 out of 90.

Studying and learning styles can affect academic achievement of students, hence, differentiating successful and unsuccessful students at university. Holding training courses, lectures and workshops, designing mobile educational apps, incorporating intensive training courses of teaching effective study methods; especially through the medical education development centers of universities, can be useful in improving this process.

Recognizing the barriers to clinical training and providing appropriate solutions to them significantly enhance the quality of clinical training.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the challenges of midwifery clinical training, and propose solutions from the perspective of midwifery instructors and students.

The present qualitative study was conducted on 10 midwifery instructors and 10 midwifery students using semi-structured interviews (n = 12) and focus groups (n = 8). Each interview or focus group lasted 45 - 90 minutes. The interviews and codes extracted were stored in Max QD. Content analysis was also used to analyze the qualitative data.

Analyzing the data led to the extraction of two main themes, i.e. efficient clinical training and strategic planning challenges, four categories, i.e. efficient clinical instructors, quality of clinical setting, learners’ perception of the situation and efficient educational planning, eight subcategories, i.e. instructors’ clinical competence, instructors’ motivation, professional attitude, humiliating experiences, restricted resources, inappropriate atmosphere of the clinical setting, inefficient curriculum and inefficient educational methods, and twenty semantic units.

Clinical training can be improved by considering the job motivation of the midwifery instructors, reviewing the system of selecting and evaluating the instructors, paying attention to the psychological dimension and academic motivation of the students, enhancing the intra-organizational cooperation in line with training, optimally allocating educational resources, reviewing the educational curricula based on the community needs and developing midwifery references tailored to professional goals.

The success of a restoration in fixed prosthodontics is affected by factors related to the dentist’s skills. Given the significance of these factors, this study was conducted to explore the effect of traditional and new teaching methods on the quality of tooth preparation by preclinical students. This study was conducted on 58 preclinical students in year three of their program who were divided into two equal groups and were trained on fixed prosthesis preparation. The first group (n = 29) was trained by a new teaching method and the second group (n = 29) by traditional methods. A total of 58 three-unit restorations, including 29 metal-ceramic crowns on the first premolars and 29 metal-ceramic crowns on the first molars, were prepared under testing conditions on mounted typodonts. The finish line was visually evaluated by a clinician. Most participants in group A were able to make acceptable finish lines. There were significant differences between the groups in terms of the finish line on the buccal and lingual surface of tooth four and six (P < 0.05), as the success rate was higher in group A than group B. No significant differences were found between the males and females in these analyses. It can be concluded that the group receiving the new teaching method was more successful in following the principles of tooth preparation. The use of educational videos can therefore be helpful in learning the principles of tooth preparation.

Evaluating educational practices in medical sciences has always been absolutely significant, given their definite role in training human resources and that receiving feedbacks for enhancing educational activities is a relatively new subject. Identifying the causes of students’ satisfaction and analyzing all the factors therefore significantly affect the academic achievement of students and can play a key role in enhancing the quality of services. Medical sciences universities currently consider students’ attitudes towards the quality of the education provided as an essential factor in the quality monitoring of ongoing studies in this field. Given the importance of community-centered education courses and the effects of different variables on students’ satisfaction and perception of the problems and quality of educational services provided, the present study was conducted to determine the degree of satisfaction of medical interns in Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.