The purpose of this study was to investigate how tutor behaviours influence learning in problem-based learning (PBL). A previous study had indicated a significant influence of the tutor's social congruent behaviour on the PBL process and this study further investigates this finding by examining two groups of tutors displaying differences in…

Internists are required to perform a number of procedures that require mastery of technical and non-technical skills, however, formal assessment of these skills is often lacking. The purpose of this study was to develop, implement, and gather validity evidence for a procedural skills objective structured clinical examination (PS-OSCE) for internal…

Healthcare practice and education are highly emotional endeavors. While this is recognized by educators and researchers seeking to develop interventions aimed at improving wellness in health professionals and at providing them with skills to deal with emotional interpersonal situations, the field of health professions education has largely ignored…

The multiple mini-interview (MMI) used in health professional schools' admission processes is reported to assess multiple non-cognitive constructs such as ethical reasoning, oral communication, or problem evaluation. Though validation studies have been performed with total MMI scores, there is a paucity of information regarding how well MMI…

Existing research into learning about patient safety focuses on identifying how educational interventions improve educational outcomes but few studies offer evidence that inform educators about the mechanisms involved in learning about patient safety. The current evidence based in undergraduates is also limited to outcomes that relate to knowledge…

The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability of a computer-based encounter card (EC) to assess medical students during an emergency medicine rotation. From April 2011 to March 2012, multiple physicians assessed an entire medical school class during their emergency medicine rotation using the CanMEDS framework. At the end of an…

Assessment of students' attitudes towards physicians' empathy is essential in medical education and in practice because empathy is vital in physician-patient communication. To cross-culturally adapt the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (S-version, JSPE-S) into a German version, examine its psychometric properties in comparison to the…

Context: The PRACTICUM Institute has developed large-scale international programs of on-line continuing professional development (CPD) based on self-testing and feedback using the Practicum Script Concordance Test© (PSCT). Aims: To examine the psychometric consequences of pooling the responses of panelists from different countries (composite…

High School, Aptitude and Achievement Tests have been utilized since 2002 in Saudi Arabia for the purpose of student selection to health sciences and medical colleges. However, longitudinal studies determining the predictive validity of these so-called cognitive tests for in-course performance is lacking. Our aim was to assess the predictive…

Participant attrition may be a significant threat to the generalizability of the results of educational research studies if participants who do not persist in a study differ from those who do in ways that can affect the experimental outcomes. A multi-center trial of the efficacy of different computer-based instructional strategies gave us the…

Context specificity, or the variation in a participant's performance from one case, or situation, to the next, is a recognized problem in medical education. However, studies have not explored the potential reasons for context specificity in experts using the lens of situated cognition and cognitive load theories (CLT). Using these theories, we…

Given the accumulating evidence that performance in medical school and beyond is related to personality, it is important for research to consider how personality assessment can be included as part of the process of selecting medical students. Interviews are one way of measuring personality and this study extends prior research investigating…

In the domain of self-assessment, researchers have begun to draw distinctions between summative self-assessment activities (i.e., making an overall judgment of one's ability in a particular domain) and self-monitoring processes (i.e., an "in the moment" awareness of whether one has the necessary knowledge or skills to address a specific problem…

Multiple studies examining the relationship between physician gender and performance on examinations have found consistent significant gender differences, but relatively little information is available related to any gender effect on interviewing and written communication skills. The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE[R]) Step 2…

Two major views on the relationship between basic science knowledge and clinical knowledge stand out; the Two-world view seeing basic science and clinical science as two separate knowledge bases and the encapsulated knowledge view stating that basic science knowledge plays an overt role being encapsulated in the clinical knowledge. However, resent…