Passing the Baton

Author(s):  
Andrea A. Anderson ◽  
Yolanda C. Haywood ◽  
Juliet Lee ◽  
Claudia U. Ranniger ◽  
Grace E. Henry

Transitions in medical school are a recognized point of stress for learners. Overall, stress is a known aspect of any period of transition, where the unknown looms large and new skills need to be acquired to achieve mastery of the next step. As the medical needs of the population grow, medical schools are admitting larger and more diverse classes. These students will undergo several major points of transition in their undergraduate medical education careers including the period of matriculation to the first year and the transition from the preclinical years into the clinical years. The George Washington School of Medicine has developed a longitudinal approach including two specific programs to support students during these recognized points of academic transition. The Prematriculation Program (PMP) and the Foundations of Clinical Practice course address the specific needs of these stages. The authors contend that an intentional approach to support students at periods of known academic risk is a beneficial aid to student success.

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-38
Author(s):  
Theda Thomas

Assessment plays an important role in students’ learning as students often frame their learning around their assessment tasks. Well-designed assessment can be used to facilitate first-year students making their social and academic transition to university. In 2009, Professor David Nicol prepared a framework for first-year assessment practices that included 12 principles. In this study, these principles were revisited and used to analyse papers from 2013 to 2016 in the journals: ‘Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education’, ‘The International Journal of First Year in Higher Education’ and ‘Student Success’. The purpose of the study was to determine how current literature addresses Nicol’s first-year assessment principles, whether there were any issues in implementing them and whether anything new is emerging in the field. Based on this analysis, proposals are made for modifying the principles and recommendations are made for future research.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 715-716

THE SOCIETY FOR ADOLESCENT MEDICINE was organized on April 28, 1968, in Washington, D.C., to foster the development of special services for adolescents and to encourage research and training relevant to their care. Membership in this society will be opened to qualified physicians who devote a significant portion of their time to this age group. During its first year Dr. J. Roswell Gallagher, Yale University School of Medicine, will serve as president; Dr. Felix Heald, George Washington University School of Medicine will serve as vice president; Dr. Andrew Rigg, Children's Hospital of Washington, D.C. will serve as treasurer; Dr. Dale C. Garell, Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles will serve as executive secretary, and Drs. Henry Cooper of Denver, Joseph Michelson, Brooklyn, and Joseph Rauh, Cincinnati will serve as members of the executive council.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Mwila

BACKGROUND The Copperbelt University is the second public University in Zambia. The School of Medicine has four major programs namely; Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, Bachelor of Dental Surgery, Bachelor of Clinical Medicine and Bachelor of Biomedical sciences. The Copperbelt University School of Medicine runs a five-year training program for both the BDS and the MBCHB programs. Students are admitted into the Medical school after successfully completing their first year at the Main campus in the School of Natural Sciences with an average of 4 B grades or higher (B grade is a mark of 65 to 74%). OBJECTIVE The study was done to determine the association between admission criteria and academic performance among preclinical students. Hence, the study compares the academic performance among preclinical students admitted into the Bachelor of Dental Surgery and Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery at the Copperbelt University School of Medicine. METHODS This is a retrospective cohort study conducted at Michael Chilufya Sata School of medicine Campus. A pilot study was conducted with 30 BDS and 30 MBCHB students and the obtained information helped determine the sample size. SPSS was used to analyze the data. The study period lasted approximately 7 weeks at a cost of K1621. RESULTS In 2014, there was an improvement in average performance between 2nd and 3rd year for each program. An average score of 15.4 (SD 4.2) was obtained in 3rd year compared to 12.8 (SD 4.9) in 2nd year (p<0.001). Meanwhile, 3rd MB ChB mean score was 12.6 (SD 3.7) compared to 10.7 (SD 3.6) in 2nd years (p<0.05). However, in 2016, both programs, 3rd year mean scores were lower than 2nd year (MB ChB 2nd year mean score was 12.0 (SD 4.3) compared to 3rd year with a mean score of 9.5 (SD 4.5), p<0.001; BDS 2nd year mean score was 10.6 (SD 4.0) compared to 3rd year mean score of 8.2 (SD 3.4), p<0.01. On average MB ChB students performed better than BDS students in all the years (p<0.05), except in 2016 when the results were comparable. CONCLUSIONS Results from the study shows that entry criteria has a correlation to academic performance as students admitted with higher grades perform much better than those with lower grades.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Petty ◽  
Dakota King-White ◽  
Tachelle Banks

Abstract Throughout the United States there are millions of Black and Brown students starting the process of attending college. However, research indicates that students from traditionally marginalized groups are less likely than their counterparts to complete the process and graduate college (Shapiro et al., 2017). While retention rates for students from traditionally marginalized backgrounds continue to decline, universities are beginning to pay attention to the needs of this population in search of ways of better supporting them. The examination of these factors may also inform programmatic adjustments, leadership philosophies, and future practices to help retain students and lead to eventual completion of a baccalaureate degree. In this article, the authors review the literature to explore factors that can affect Black and Brown students’ completion rates in higher education. By reviewing the literature and the factors impacting Black and Brown students, the authors share with readers initiatives at one university that are being used to support students from a strengths-based approach.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 497-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu (April) Chen ◽  
Sylvester Upah

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics student success is an important topic in higher education research. Recently, the use of data analytics in higher education administration has gain popularity. However, very few studies have examined how data analytics may influence Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics student success. This study took the first step to investigate the influence of using predictive analytics on academic advising in engineering majors. Specifically, we examined the effects of predictive analytics-informed academic advising among undeclared first-year engineering student with regard to changing a major and selecting a program of study. We utilized the propensity score matching technique to compare students who received predictive analytics-informed advising with those who did not. Results indicated that students who received predictive analytics-informed advising were more likely to change a major than their counterparts. No significant effects was detected regarding selecting a program of study. Implications of the findings for policy, practice, and future research were discussed.


Author(s):  
June Countryman ◽  
Andrew Zinck

Concerned about the success rate of new students in our program we designed and implemented a compulsory set of experiences which aim to support students in their transition from high school to university by 1) developing their sense of belonging to a community of learners and by 2) articulating with them the interrelationships among their first year core courses. We initiated various strategies which we have refined in response to student feedback over the past three years. In this paper we describe the pedagogical moves that constitute our initiative and the lessons we learned. We explore essential academic and personal issues that first-year students in all programs face. We share our research findings and address the big ideas that could be applied to any discipline or multi-disciplinary program. Préoccupés par les taux de rétention des étudiants de première année, les auteurs ont conçu et mis en oeuvre un ensemble d’expériences obligatoires dont le but est d’aider les étudiants à effectuer la transition entre l’école secondaire et l’université. Ils ont établi deux objectifs : (a) développer chez les étudiants le sens d’appartenance à une communauté d’apprenants et (b) démontrer les corrélations qui existent entre les cours de base de première année que les étudiants suivent. Diverses stratégies ont été entreprises et plus tard améliorées, à partir des rétroactions fournies par les étudiants au cours de l’étude de deux ans. Cet article présente une explication des actions pédagogiques de cette initiative et explore les questions essentielles académiques et personnelles auxquelles sont confrontés les étudiants de première année dans tous les programmes. Les résultats de cette étude sont résumés et les idées générales qui peuvent s’appliquer à n’importe quelle discipline ou à des programmes multidisciplinaires sont présentées en détail.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Hinds ◽  
S. Patrick Walton ◽  
Mark Urban-Lurain ◽  
Daina Briedis

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-136
Author(s):  
Aude Villatte ◽  
Diane Marcotte ◽  
Alexandra Potvin

This study aimed to identify and rank the personal, family-related, social, and academic correlates of depressive symptoms in first-year college students. A questionnaire that included the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) was administered to 389 first-year college students (mean age = 18.9; SD = 3.38; 59.4% female). Eight variables contributed uniquely to the variance of depressive symptoms and were, in decreasing order of importance: (1) the absence of personal goals, (2) a high level of anxiety and (3) of dysfunctional thoughts regarding success, (4) a lack of emotional adjustment to college, (5) being female, (6) receiving little warmth and encouragement of autonomy from one’s mother and (7) from one’s father, and (8) being attracted to members of the opposite or both sexes. These results suggest that a multimodal intervention is required to support students’ mental health.  


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Willems ◽  
Liesje Coertjens ◽  
Vincent Donche

To date, little understanding exists of how first-year students in professionally oriented higher-education (HE) programs (i.e., those that provide vocational education to prepare students for a particular occupation) experience their academic transition process. In the present study, we first argued how the constructs of academic adjustment and academic integration can provide complementary perspectives on the academic transition of first-year students in (professional) HE. Next, we examined what first-year students in professional HE contexts perceive to be the most important experiences associated with their academic transition process in the first semester of their first year of higher education (FYHE). To this end, we adopted the fundamentals of the critical incident technique and asked 104 students in a Flemish (Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) university college (which offers professional HE programs, such as nursing) to complete “reflective logs” with open questions at the start of the second semester of their FYHE, wherein they reflected on three critical academic experiences during their first semester. An inductive, cross-case content analysis of the collected narratives showed that students reported on nine themes of academic experiences, which relate to five adjustment themes (dealing with the organization of the study program, organizing study work, committing to the study, following class and taking notes, and processing learning content outside class) and four integration themes (feeling competent, feeling stressed, feeling prepared, and feeling supported). Further analyses showed that although some of the nine themes of academic experiences appear to be more important at different times in the first semester, they all seem to be meaningful throughout the whole semester.


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