Correlating students' educational background, study habits, and resource usage with learning success in medical histology

Abstract

Histology is a traditional core basic science component of most medical and dental education programs and presents a didactic challenge for many students. Identifying students that are likely to struggle with histology would allow for early intervention to support and encourage their learning success. To identify student characteristics that are associated with learning success in histology, three first-year medical school classes at the University of Michigan (>440 students) were surveyed about their educational background, attitudes toward learning histology, and their use of histology learning strategies and resources. These characteristics were linked with the students' quiz and examination results in histology. Students who reported previous experience in histology or pathology and hold science or biomedical science college degrees usually did well in histology. Learning success in histology was also positively associated with students' perception that histology is important for their professional career. Other positive indicators were in-person participation in teacher-guided learning experiences, specifically lecture and laboratory sessions. In contrast, students who relied on watching histology lectures by video rather than going to lectures in-person performed significantly worse. These characteristics and learning strategies of students who did well in this very visual and challenging study subject should be of help for identifying and advising students early, who might be at risk of failing a histology course or component.

Learning histology – dental and medical students' study strategies

“…As this study only analyses one dental and one medical class, one might question whether these two classes represent general student attitudes. However, in our longitudinal comparison of three different medical school classes, little year-to-year variation between students' responses was observed, and we are therefore confident that the data presented in this manuscript are reasonably characteristic (32). One limitation of this study is its reliance on subjective student answers for some of the questions using a Likert scale.…”

A psychometric evaluation of the anatomy learning experiences questionnaire and correlations with learning outcomes

“…In a previous study at two Australian medical schools, ratings of importance of anatomy showed a weak positive correlation (Kendall's tau‐b, τ = 0.226) with self‐reported anatomy knowledge (Choi‐Lundberg et al, ). Similarly, medical students who thought histology was more relevant to their future career performed better on histology examinations (Selvig et al, ). Thus, helping students appreciate the relevance of anatomy to clinical practice, including citing evidence from surveys of practicing medical professionals (e.g., Arráez‐Aybar et al, ), should improve students' perceptions of the importance, and therefore motivate their learning, of anatomy.…”

Study skills in anatomy and physiology: Is there a difference?

“…Looking more specifically at individual courses, Selvig and colleagues recently found that study habits in histology had some interesting correlations (Selvig et al, ). First, they found that final histology grades were positively associated with how relevant the student thought that the course was to his/her future medical career (Selvig et al, ). They also found students that used the online practice questions were more likely to have higher final grades (Selvig et al, ).…”