Background: Summative assessment in postgraduate examination globally employs multiple measures. A standard-setting method decides on pass or fail based on an arbitrarily defined cut-off point on a test score, which is often content expert’s subjective judgment. Contrary to this a standard-setting strategy primarily practices two approaches, a compensatory approach, which decides on overall performance as a sum of all the test scores and a conjunctive approach that requires passing performance for each instrument. However, the challenge using multiple measures is not due to number of measurement tools but due to logic by which the measures are combined to draw inferences on pass or fail in summative assessment. Conjoint University Board of Examination of Masters’ of Otolaryngology and Head-Neck Surgery (ORL-HNS) in Malaysia also uses multiple measures to reach a passing or failing decision in summative assessment. However, the standard setting strategy of assessment is loosely and variably applied to make ultimate decision on pass or fail. To collect the evidences, the summative assessment program of Masters’ of ORL-HNS in School of Medical Sciences at Universiti Sains Malaysia was analyzed for validity to evaluate the appropriateness of decisions in postgraduate medical education in Malaysia. Methodology: A retrospective study was undertaken to evaluate the validity of the conjoint summative assessment results of part II examination of USM candidates during May 2000-May 2011. The Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression tests were used to determine the discriminant and convergent validity of assessment tools. Pearson’s correlation coefficient analyzed the association between assessment tools and the multiple linear regression compared the dominant roles of factor variables in predicting outcomes. Based on outcome of the study, reforms for standard-setting strategy are also recommended towards programming the assessment in a surgical-based discipline. Results: The correlation coefficients of MCQ and essay questions were found not significant (0.16). Long and short cases were shown to have good correlations (0.53). Oral test stood as a component to show fair correlation with written (0.39-0.42) as well as clinical component (0.50-0.66). The predictive values in written tests suggested MCQ predicted by oral (B=0.34, P
Introduction: Medical and allied health educators around the globe agreed that an optimal educational climate is a vital aspect for effective learning to take place. Without a doubt, appraisal of the educational climate has been emphasized as a key to the delivery of high quality medical education. In addition, the appraisal provides useful feedback to particular institution to improve their curriculum.
Objective: This study was employed as part of the School of Medical Sciences (SMS) Universiti Sains Malaysia curriculum review process. It aimed to explore the strengths and weaknesses of the current medical curriculum thus could provide useful information to guide the curriculum review committee during the review process.
Method: A cross sectional study was conducted on a total of 656 medical students from the first, third and fifth year of study. Purposive sampling method was applied. DREEM was administered to the medical students to evaluate the educational climate in the studied medical school.
Result: A total of 511 (77.9%) medical students completely responded to the 50 statements of DREEM. The mean global score across phases of medical training was 128.36/200. The global scores for year 1, year 3 and year 5 were 138.94/200, 122.27/200 and 125.49/200 respectively. Results showed that; 1) the medical school had reasonably level of educational climates across phases of medical training; 2) the medical teachers were knowledgeable and well prepared for the teaching; 3) the students were overloaded with factual knowledge; 4) the medical teachers were quite harsh to students during teaching session especially in clinical phase; 5) students experienced a significant amount of stress that led to poor memory; 6) the learning process was inclined toward teacher-centered rather than student-centered learning; 7) students had a considerable healthy social relationships with peers as well as others; and 8) academic dishonesty became more apparent in the clinical phase.
Conclusion: The medical school's educational environment across different phases of study was more positive than negative. However, there are plenty of rooms for improvement as perceived by the medical students. The medical school should address various important issues highlighted in this article during the curriculum review process.
Introduction: Attitudes towards animal welfare are important in influencing how animals are treated. Studies of attitudes towards animal welfare in veterinary students are scarce. It is hope that the findings will enhace a diverse research in the future in order to explore variety of factors in relation to animal welfare since such study is currently limited.
Objective: The study is to determine the associations of gender,year of study and empathy level of undergraduate DVM students in UPM into their attitude towards animal welfare.
Method: Questionnaires were given to 440 Doctor of Veterinary Medicine undergraduate students in UPM to study the associations between gender,year of study and empathy level with attitudes towards animal welfare. Data were collected from respondents through two sets of self guided questionnaires. Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) which assessed empathy level where only two sub-scales from the IRI were used. Empathic Concern (EC) and Perspective Taking (PT). Animal Attitude Scales (AAS) were used to assess attitudes towards animal welfare. Data collected were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.
Result: 367 (83.4%) out of 440 students participated in this study. Antu-animal welfare attitude (74.9%) was the highest compared to the pro-animal welfare attitude (25.1%). Analysis showed a significant difference (p0.005) between gender and attitudes towards animal welfare (p=0.057) as well as between empathy level and attitudes towards animal welfarefor empathic concern sub-scale (p=0.194) and perspective taking sub-scale (p=0.320).
Conclusion: Majority of sudents were categorized as anti-animal welfareand the attitudes were significantly different among years of study. Female and malestudents have nomsignificant differences in their attitudes towards animal welfare. Students with ggod and poor empathy level also have no significant difference in their attitudes towards animal welfare.
Introduction: A clear concept and understanding about the measure and the measuring tools is essential for good practice of assessment. Assessors need to have information about the full range of assessment tools inclusive of psychometric validity and purpose of its use. Subjective inferences drawn from the readily available data as numbers of summative scores over the years and statistical evidences of reliability and validity of assessment tools used to measure student’s performance are good sources of feedback for competent assessment program. It also provides meaningful evaluation of learning and teaching in medical education. Method: A retrospective study of 119 candidates was carried out to analyze the summative assessment scores of their certifying examination of Masters of Surgery in School of Medical Sciences (SMS) at Universiti Sains Malaysia. Subjective judgment of raw data followed by internal consistency as reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity as constructs of individual assessment tool was analyzed. Finally each assessment tool as a measure of written or clinical construct was evaluated against six aspects of Messick’s criteria for quality control. Result: The correlation coefficient for validity and Cronbach’s alpha for reliability was evaluated for clinical measures. However, the test of internal reliability was not possible for essay being the only measure in written construct of summative assessment in surgery. All measures of clinical construct were found highly reliable with Cronbach’s alpha between 0.962-0.979. Long case and the short cases have shown excellent correlations (r=0.959 at p