Qualitative content analysis of the highly cited articles in medical education: Trends and characteristics associated with citation of published studies in medical education research

Abstract

Purpose To explore and describe the highly cited articles’ themes of research in medical education and to provide an insight into and reflection on which the elites of medical education society invested their energies from 2009 to 2018. Methods An in-depth content analysis as a research technique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication was used to quantitatively assess subject interests, methods, and other characteristics associated with citation of published studies in medical education research. Meaning units were compacted and coded with labels and categories in two phases. Results Among a variety of topics, methods, and strategies, 764 codes, 24 descriptive themes, and seven categories were extracted from the content analysis as the most prominent. Categories of medical education research were: modern technologies updating in medical education; learner performance improvement; sociological aspects of medical education; clinical reasoning; research methodology concerns of medical education; instructional design educational models; and professional aspects of medical education. Conclusions Commitment to continuous revision of educational emphasis and concerns on technological, sociological, and methodological concerns were the most repeated components of the highly cited articles that were ascertained through increased structure course designs and instructional strategies of the flipped classrooms to realize clinical reasoning and performance improvement. Practice points It becomes increasingly urgent to understand how various educational processes and technology-enhanced innovations affect each other and do or could influence learning outcomes, clinical reasoning, and performance improvement. Modern technologies as techniques to administer the changing educational and social environment, can supply and support the infrastructure and basis for operating many of the challenges in preparing the medical education community for the future. Research in the medical education context in the future should be focused on the inter-relationships of prominent and marginalized educational themes and categories.