Students' personality and learning anatomy

Abstract

There is increasing recognition within education of the importance of non‐cognitive factors, including personality, for performance. This talk will look at data from both the qualitative and quantitative paradigms in order to consider the relationship between personality and performance within anatomy assessments. Particular consideration will be given to the personality domain of conscientiousness, which is a well‐established predictor of performance in both workplace and academic settings. Data from quantitative studies investigating the relationships between the 'Big Five' personality domains, the facets of conscientiousness and performance in a practical anatomy examination will be presented. These studies found that performance in an anatomy examination was related to higher levels of conscientiousness and, more specifically, to higher levels of achievement striving. Additionally, qualitative data exploring how students construct their anatomical knowledge and, the interplay between this and their personality, will be presented. The results of these studies have important implications for selection and assessment in medicine.