Does self reflection and insight correlate with academic performance in medical students?

BMC Medical Education

Paula H Johnson¹  Sandra E Carr² 

[1] School of Medicine and Pharmacology Fremantle Hospital Unit, Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Science, University of Western Australia, PO Box 480, Fremantle WA 6959, Australia;Education Centre, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Science, University of Western Australia, M515, 35 Stirling Highway, Nedlands, WA 6009, Australia

关键词: Medical students;    Insight;    Self reflection;   

Others  :  1138819
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6920-13-113

 received in 2013-02-26, accepted in 2013-08-19,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Medical students in academic difficulty are often described as lacking insight. The Self Reflection and Insight Scale (SRIS) is a tool for measuring insight which has been validated in medical students. We investigated whether self reflection and insight scores correlate with academic performance in Year 4 medical students from a six year undergraduate medical degree, and whether self reflection and insight changes after one year of clinical training.

Methods

Self reflection and insight scores were measured in 162 students at the start of Year 4 at the University of Western Australia. Performance in end of year written and clinical exams was monitored and correlated with SRIS. Seventy of the students were surveyed again at the start of Year 5 to see if scores changed or were stable after one year of full time clinical training.

Results

We found no correlation between self reflection or insight and academic performance in written and clinical exams. There was a significant increase in recognition of the need for self reflection in Year 5 compared with Year 4.

Conclusions

While no correlation was found between this measure of self reflection and insight with academic performance, there was an increase in students’ recognition of the need for reflection after one year of clinical studies. This study is a valuable first step towards a potentially exciting research domain and warrants further longitudinal evaluation with larger cohorts of students using additional measures of achievement.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Carr and Johnson; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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