Early identification of first-year students at risk of dropping out of high-school entry medical school: the usefulness of teachers’ ratings of class participation

Abstract

Dropping out from undergraduate medical education is costly for students, medical schools, and society in general. Therefore, the early identification of potential dropout students is important. The contribution of personal features to dropout rates has merited exploration. However, there is a paucity of research on aspects of student experience that may lead to dropping out. In this study, underpinned by theoretical models of student commitment, involvement, and engagement, we explored the hypothesis of using inferior participation as an indicator of a higher probability of dropping out in year 1. Class participation was calculated as an aggregate score based on teachers' daily observations in class. The study used a longitudinal dataset of six cohorts of high-school entry students (N = 709, 67% females) in one medical school with an annual intake of 120 students. The findings confirmed the initial hypothesis and showed that lower scores of class participation in year 1 added predictive ability to pre-entry characteristics (Pseudo-R 2 raised from 0.22 to 0.28). Even though the inclusion of course failure in year 1 resulted in higher explanatory power than participation in class (Pseudo-R 2 raised from 0.28 to 0.63), ratings of class participation may be advantageous to anticipate dropout identification, as those can be collected prior to course failure. The implications for practice are that teachers' ratings of class participation can play a role in indicating medical students who may eventually drop out. We conclude that the scores of class participation can contribute to flagging systems for the early detection of student dropouts.

Guidelines: The dos, don’ts and don’t knows of remediation in medical education

“…However, some indicators may be fruitful for future research. For example, one recent study found that systematic faculty ratings of in-class participation predicted failure of year 1 medical students before students began to underperform [170].…”

Using Research Agreements to Build Respectful, Publication-Grade Scholarly Relationships in Liberal-Arts Settings

“…The co-authored research agreement offers a safe and mutually respectful context in which faculty and students can reflect on shared and unshared goals. Enhancing students' sense of professionalism, control, and ownership leads to a stronger commitment to seeing a project through from data collection to publication (Araujo et al, 2018; Cavanagh et al, 2018).…”

Prevalence of Potential Dropout Thoughts and Their Influential Factors Among Saudi Medical Students

“…Positive life events have protective effect against withdrawal thoughts whereas negative experiences enhance the risk of dropout thinking (Dyrbye et al, 2010; Vos et al, 2019). Likewise, decreased sense of personal accomplishments has been evaluated in the study of (Araújo et al, 2019), the results showed that personal accomplishments decrease gradually as dropout thoughts increase (Dyrbye et al, 2010; Kehm et al, 2019). On the similar lines, social seclusion was found as a potential factor in ∼20% of the dropped-out students in a study published from Ireland, and this phenomenon was more prevalent in other international students (Maher et al, 2013).…”

“…Student dropout from medical school is a matter of grave concern as it may eventually lead to a reduction in the number of future medical practitioners, which will further the grim healthcare situation of any country. Moreover, dropout is found to be a source-wasting phenomena in our society because a handsome percentage of an economy is being spent on medical education and its facilities by a majority of the countries of the world, unfortunately which is met by a (Araújo et al, 2019; Arulampalam et al, 2004; Lazin & Neumann, 1991; Mørcke et al, 2012; Vos et al, 2019).…”