Exploring Achievement Emotions of Medical Students During Problem-Based Learning Tutorials

Abstract

Background: Emotions are important contributors in students’ motivation, learning and achievement. However, there is no current evidence addressing the students' emotions during the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) tutorials sessions. Aim: this study was planned with the purpose of investigating the students' academic emotions during the PBL tutorials. Methods: Achievement Emotion Questionnaire (AEQ) was used to assess achievement emotions of the students during PBL sessions. Data were collected from first- and second-year medical students (n=287) during PBL tutorials at the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University. Results: The total means of the activating achievement emotions in the first year are higher than in the second year. There was a significant difference between the means of the two years’ responses in pride, enjoyment and anxiety (p-value: 0.000, 0.001, 0.000) respectively by paired t-test. The internal consistency of the items was also measured by Cronbach alpha (0.94). Conclusion: Positive activating emotions like enjoyment, pride and hope are associated with innovative interactive learning strategy like PBL. Still tasks and problems should be more challenging to increase negative activating emotions like anxiety