ERIC Number: EJ1078972
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1927-5250
EISSN: N/A
Psychological Factors Affecting Medical Students' Learning with Erroneous Worked Examples
Klopp, Eric; Stark, Robin; Kopp, Veronika; Fischer, Martin R.
Journal of Education and Learning, v2 n1 p158-170 2013
The acquisition of diagnostic competence is seen as a major goal during the course of study in medicine. One innovative method to foster this goal is problem-based learning with erroneous worked examples provided in a computer learning environment. The present study explores the relationship of attitudinal, emotional and cognitive factors for learning with erroneous worked examples. 72 medical students from a German university worked with six case-based examples in the domain of arterial hypertension. Domain-specific conceptual prior knowledge, anxiety of making errors, attitudes towards errors, and ambiguity tolerance were measured as independent variables before the students worked with the examples. Diagnostic competence was operationalized by measuring conceptual, strategic, and conditional knowledge, which were assessed as dependent variables after working with the learning environment. A cluster analytic approach yielded three clusters. For each, the relationship with the learning outcome was analysed. Cluster membership significantly influenced the learning outcome in strategic, but not in conditional knowledge. Furthermore, cluster membership had a significant effect on conceptual knowledge; there was also an increase in conceptual knowledge for all clusters when conceptual knowledge measured after the treatment was compared to prior conceptual knowledge. The results clearly indicate the importance of a certain pattern of psychological factors for learning with erroneous worked examples.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Medical Students, Psychological Patterns, Problem Based Learning, Problem Solving, Competence, Clinical Diagnosis, Models, Prior Learning, Ambiguity (Context), Anxiety, Multivariate Analysis, Error Patterns, Profiles, Correlation, Multiple Choice Tests
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Germany
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A