Relationship between Learning Strategies and Academic Achievement in Medical College and Graduate Medical School Students / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: Cognitive researchers assume that learning strategies are related to three types of learning processes: 'surface learning,' 'strategy learning,' and 'deep learning.' A 'deep learning' approach is widely accepted to be associated with long-term success in medical school, contributing to the development of doctors who take desirable approaches to self-directed learning and studying in medical practice. Therefore, this study measured how medical students learn and determined whether the use of learning strategies differs between high and low academic performers. In addition, we compared medical college students with graduate medical school students with regard to the use of learning strategies. METHODS: To explore the learning strategies of students and their relation to academic achievement, we performed LIST (Learning Strategies in Higher Education Inventory) in a sample of 111 Year 1 medical students. RESULTS: Medical students with high academic performance scored higher in most learning strategies than low performers. Additionally, learning strategies were used more frequently by graduate medical school students than medical students, specifically with regard to organization, elaboration, critical thinking, and time management. CONCLUSION: We conclude that learning strategy instruments provide information that enables medical students to optimize their study. To foster deep learning and intrinsic motivation in students, it might also be necessary to adopt more changes in teaching and assessment in medical schools.

The Present Conditions of Clinical Clerkship Management in Korea / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: This study investigated the present conditions of clinical clerkship management in Korea to make recommendations for it. METHODS: The data were collected between April 15 and May 30 in 2009 using questionnaires that were sent to the clerkship directors of 41 colleges of medicine and medical graduate schools. RESULTS: The elective course system was established in 78% of the institutions; the 6 core specialties were found in all medical schools. The duration of clerkship was longest in internal medicine, followed by surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, and emergency medicine. There were differences between the planning and monitoring agencies. Preclinical courses existed in 92.7% of the institutions. However, much more remains to be done ie, with regard to the issues of student assessment in clinical clerkship, faculty development programs for the faculty and residents, incentive systems for educational involvement, provisions for yearly systematic clerkships, integration of basic-clinical science-medical humanities, and community-based education. CONCLUSION: Because clinical clerkship education is very important as a core curriculum, curriculum planning and its management must be given adequate attention. The following measures are suggested: elective systems that allow students to choose by career planning; concerns over faculty development programs for residents as a teacher; consensus on the concept, objectives, duration, content, evaluation tools of pre-clinical clerkship and clinical clerkship, and student well-being; and emphasis on community-based education.