The Influence of Personality and Knowledge Characters on the Performance of Medical Students in the Problem Based Learning

• Main Authors: Shi-Ping Luh, 陸希平
• Other Authors: 林妍如
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/76378085878895885192

碩士 === 中國醫藥大學 === 醫務管理研究所 === 93 === Background: Problem based learning (PBL), a student-centered and small group discussion approach to analyze, explain and solve the problem. This learning model has been implemented in all medical universities in Taiwan for years. There are many factors being reported to influence the performance in the PBL course. Purpose: To discover how the personality, knowledge, and tutors’ performance would influence the performance of medical students in the PBL curriculum. Method: A total of 124 undergraduate medical students participated in this survey. The personality was self-assessed by 44-itemed Big Five factors. The knowledge was assessed by their score point average (SPA) in the previous four years at the medical school. The performances of students in PBL curriculum were assessed by peers and tutors, with the use of two newly developed, reliable and validated evaluation sheets. The specialists content validity and the consistency reliability of related measures were tested. Results: The principal components (Eigenvalue >1) of the PBL performance evaluated by peers or tutors were analyzed as five (control/lead, assist/coordinate, obey rules, observe/think and compromise) and two (insist on rules vs flexible) major independent factors respectively. The specialists (n=5) content validity coefficient (Vi) for the PBL evaluation sheet (5-point scale) ranged from 0.8 to 0.95 (p<0.05). The consistency reliabilities of the Big-Five personality questionnaire were analyzed and deleted discordant items (Crobach’s Alpha= 0.67 to 0.82 after selection). The relationships between the personality/knowledge characters and the PBL performance, analyzed by stepwise regression, showed that the conscientiousness personality and knowledge (SPA) are positively related to the control/lead character in PBL, and the extraversion is positively related to the obey-rule character in PBL. The agreeableness and conscientiousness personality are positively related to the SPA. Conclusion: The knowledge and personality characters appear to influence the performances of students in PBL. The students PBL performance evaluated by peers have more discriminate power than these evaluated by tutors. More samples will be required to get more reliable results. Implications are drawn regarding the future development and application of this assessment tools in medical schools.