Abstract
AimsCourses for undergraduate medical students, particularly those with a problem-based learning curriculum, use small study groups as a key learning modality. Our aim was to design and validate an inventory to measure students’ perceptions of the functioning of their study group.MethodsThe initial items were derived from focus group discussions with four domains subsequently generated by the authors from the data. Students in years one and two were invited to respond to each item without being aware of the domain names. Collated responses were scrutinised and allocation of items to each domain was considered by each author with duplicate or ambiguous items being discounted. The resulting inventory was used to evaluate the perceptions of students in the succeeding year. The items were triangulated alongside the student perceptions by eliciting the opinions of small group teachers and personal tutors.ResultsForty-seven items were derived from four focus group discussions and an initial pilot. Subsequently 49.2% (n = 472) of year one and two students completed the first version of the inventory. After analysis of their responses, 24 items were allocated to four domains. When used with 32 study groups in the succeeding cohort of 274 first-year students, the inventory ranked them in order. The lowest scoring groups were also identified by tutors and teachers as problematic.ConclusionWe have developed an inventory to evaluate students’ learning experiences in small groups to meet a need for medical schools that wish to monitor this aspect of their courses. Furthermore, the results have the potential to enhance the function of small study groups.
Highlights
Medical schools, especially those with problem-based learning (PBL) and team-based learning (TBL) curricula, make extensive use of small groups as a learning modality in their courses
Learning experience and their subsequent academic performance [1, 2]. Whilst there are both merits and shortcomings of the various methods used to deliver a medical curriculum, it is recognised that certain skills and procedures are required within the group for learning to occur beyond the accumulation of knowledge by individuals [3, 4]. It is widely reported in the literature that there is a significant relationship between group cohesiveness and performance, with a cohesive group outperforming a fractionated group [5]
One could hypothesise that the academic performance and learning experience of a student may be influenced by how their study group functions [8]
Summary
Especially those with problem-based learning (PBL) and team-based learning (TBL) curricula, make extensive use of small groups as a learning modality in their courses. Students work together to address problems, questions or case studies, and in this context, group dynamics may play an important role in student perceptions of their learning experience and their subsequent academic performance [1, 2] Whilst there are both merits and shortcomings of the various methods used to deliver a medical curriculum, it is recognised that certain skills and procedures are required within the group for learning to occur beyond the accumulation of knowledge by individuals [3, 4]. It is widely reported in the literature that there is a significant relationship between group cohesiveness and performance, with a cohesive group outperforming a fractionated group [5]. One could hypothesise that the academic performance and learning experience of a student may be influenced by how their study group functions [8]
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