Abu Bakar, Muhammad Husni and Sivarajan, Kesaven and Haris, Qurratu ‘ Aini (2021) The relationship between learning style, social demographic background, and pharmacology assessment result amongst first year medical students in Universiti Putra Malaysia. [Project Paper] (Submitted)
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Abstract
Background: Medical school is the stepping stone for anyone interested to become a medical practitioner in the future. However, the journey of becoming a medical practitioner is never easy. “Learning style” is known as a particular person's consistent or preferable way of learning. According to Grasha and Riechmann (1996), learning styles can be classified into six categories, which are dependent, independent, collaborative, competitive, contributive (participant), and avoidant types of studying methods. Apart from learning styles, another important factor that contributes to students’ pharmacology assessment results includes the sociodemographic background of that student itself which includes the student’s family income, parental educational level as well as area of residence. Problem Statement: On average, approximately 10% of first-year medical students fail throughout their first year in medical school and it is most likely due to the learning style that does not fit with them. This is due to their inability to adapt to the new teaching methods and evaluation tests which are so much different from their secondary school and pre-universities. Thus, we would like to observe and determine the types of learning styles among first-year medical students for them to cope with this program especially in the aspect of evaluation tests. Moreover, medical students’ assessment results may also be affected by their social demographic backgrounds such as family income, parental educational level, and residential area. Objectives: This study aimed to study the relationship between learning styles, the social demographic background consisting of family income, parental educational level, and residential area with pharmacology assessment results amongst the first-year medical students in Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Materials and Methods: In this study, questions on a sociodemographic background based on three factors which are family income, parental educational level, and residential area will be employed and for the learning style, we will be using Grasha-Riechmann Student Learning Style Scales (GRSLSS). This is a cross-sectional study on a population of 101 first-year medical students at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Chi Square test and Fisher’s Exact test are used to assess the association between the variables mentioned. Results: The study is participated by all 101 preclinical first-year medical students with the response rate of 100%. Most of the students are dependent learners (33; 32.67%), followed by collaborative learners (32; 31.68%) and participative learners (28; 7.72%). The least preferred learning styles by the students are avoidant (4; 3.96), independent (3; 2.97%) and competitive learning styles (1; 0.99%). Most of the students came from the M40 family (34; 35.64%), followed by B40 (34; 33.46%) and T20 (31; 30.69%). Moreover, most of the students had parents or guardians with a degree/ similar (47; 46.53%) as the highest educational level, followed by secondary education (26; 25.74%), diploma/ similar (15; 14.85%), and PhD (13; 12.87%). As for the residential area, most of the students lived in urban areas (76; 75.25%) while some lived in rural areas (25; 24.75%). In pharmacology assessment results perspective, most of the students were categorized into moderate students (57; 56.44%), followed by excellent students (23; 22.77%) and the remaining were weak students (21; 20.79%). There is a statistically significant association between family income and the pharmacology assessment results of the first-year medical students of Universiti Putra Malaysia with a p-value of 0.013 (p < 0.05). However, there is no statistically significant association between learning styles and pharmacology assessment results with a p-value of 0.822 (p ≥ 0.05). Similarly, there is no statistically significant association between parental educational level and pharmacology assessment results with p-value of 0.570 (p ≥ 0.05). Lastly, the findings revealed that there is no statistically significant association between residential area and pharmacology assessment results with a p-value of 0.334 (p ≥ 0.05). Conclusion: This study revealed that pharmacology assessment results are only associated with family income of the students. However, this study demonstrated that different types of learning styles adopted by the first-year medical students are not associated with their pharmacology assessment results. Similarly, this study revealed that pharmacology assessment results are not associated with parental educational level as well as their residential areas. Keywords: Learning Styles, Family Income, Parental Educational Level, Residential Area, First-year medical students: Universiti Putra Malaysia.
| Item Type: | Project Paper |
|---|---|
| Faculty: | Faculty of Medicine and Health Science |
| Depositing User: | Ms Norafizah Radzuan |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Sep 2023 04:28 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Sep 2023 04:28 |
| URI: | http://psaspb.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/1027 |
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