ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Original Research

Authors

Otaghi   M. (*)






(*) Nursing Department, Nursing & Midwifery Faculty, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran

Correspondence

Address: Faculty of Nursing & midwifery, Ilam University of Medical Science, Banganjab, Ilam
Phone: +988433351791
Fax: +988432227123
otaghi-m@medilam.ac.ir

Article History

Received:  June  12, 2015
Accepted:  January 3, 2016
ePublished:  January 10, 2016

BRIEF TEXT


… [1-6] There is a correlation between the learners’ learning strategies and their academic achievement [7-16]. Students with higher GPA are with higher study skills [14]. … [17-19]

Advising and counseling the students and conducting training courses in academic skills as workshops or preliminary courses in the universities are effective [11, 14, 20-22].

The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of academic skills training on academic achievement of the associate medical emergency students of Ilam University of Medical Sciences.

This is a pretest-posttest study without any control group.

Associate medical emergency students of Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Iran, enrolled on January 2014 were studied in 2014.

23 students were studied.

At the end of the first semester (July 2014), based on the students educational files, the academic problems of the students were determined as low semester GPA, failed in a course, and no enough motivation in academic progress. Educational intervention was the implementation of one or two educational workshops during a semester to teach self-regulating skills in cognitive, emotional, and leaning behavioral domains via pretest and posttest. From the beginning of the second semester (September 2014), two 3-hour workshops were conducted with one month interval by the advisor. The workshops were named as “academic skills” and their content consisted of 10 academic skills including planning, time management, concentration, memory empowering method, correct study techniques, noting, briefing, speed reading, test responding, and exam anxiety control. Pretest and posttest was done in the workshop through a 10-phrase questionnaire based on Likert’s scale assessing the utilization of the mentioned academic skills. The pretest was done before the implementation of the workshop. The posttest was done simultaneously with the exams at the end of the semester. Formal and content validity of the questionnaire were confirmed by 10 faculty members. Its reliability was confirmed through retest method and by correlation coefficient 0.90. Data was analyzed by SPSS 21 software using paired T test (descriptive and inferential). The students’ academic achievements were compared by their semester GPA.

All participants were male and single (aged between 18 and 27 years). Mean age of the subjects was 20.43±2.31 years. 4, 16, and 3 persons were residents of Ilam City, townships of Ilam, and other provinces, respectively. There was a significant difference between total mean scores of the students’ academic skills before and after the interventions. Before the intervention, the highest and the lowest mean scores were the scores of exam anxiety control skill and memory empowering methods utilization skills, respectively. After the intervention, the highest and the lowest mean scores were again the aforementioned scores, in which the increase in the score of memory empowering methods utilization skills was significant. In addition, the educational intervention having been implemented, there were significant increases in the scores of academic planning skill and correct study techniques. Nevertheless, there was no significant increase in the scores of other academic skills (Table 1). Based on the investigation of the effectiveness of the academic skills intervention on the students’ academic progress (GPA), there was a significant difference between mean 1st semester GPA (15.05±1.23) and mean 2nd semester GPA (15.75±1.29; p=0.001). The highest and the lowest GPAs in the 1st semester were 17.42 and 12.43, respectively; and in the 2nd semester, the GPAs reached 17.91 and 13.49, respectively.

After the implementation of the academic skills workshops during a semester, there was a significant increase in the students’ utilization of the skills. Students have not enough knowledge in the study skills that leads to the feeling of inadequate efficiency [22]. From the viewpoints of medical students, one of the effective factors on the academic progress is the study methods [12]. Teaching the academic skills is proposed as educational courses like workshops and academic courses [11, 14, 20-22]. The highest and the lowest mean scores were the scores of exam anxiety control and memory empowering methods utilization skills, respectively. Remembering and recalling the issues, concentration, and time management are the most important problems of the dentistry students. In addition, the students do not insist on the review and recall of the content [22]. Based on the studies investigating the correlation between study skills and ways to be ready for the exam, the highest and the lowest mean scores are the scores of noting skill and time management skill, respectively [15]. The academic skills teaching intervention significantly affected the students’ academic progress (GPA). The result is consistent with some other studies [11, 14, 15, 21]. Self-regulating learning affected the students’ academic progress via an enhancement in the academic skills. Lack of any attention to the effective factors on learning leads to academic failure in nursing and midwifery students. In addition, there are correlations between the learning specifications, such as study method, self-control resource, and the components of self-regulating learning, and the students’ academic progress [11]. … [23, 24]

Such interventions might be conducted as a course during a semester.

Conducting the intervention by one person only was one of the limitations for the study.

Conducting academic skills teaching workshops affects the utilization of the skills by the students and their academic progress.

Nursing and Midwifery Faculty and EDC of Ilam University of Medical Sciences, as well as the participating students, are appreciated.

There is no conflict.

The study plan was confirmed by EDC of Ilam University of Medical Sciences.

The study was funded by Research Deputy of Ilam University of Medical Sciences.

TABLES and CHARTS

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