{"id":2877,"date":"2020-06-24T16:37:36","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T15:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-medicine\/?p=2877"},"modified":"2020-07-09T16:22:39","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T15:22:39","slug":"celebrating-transformational-changes-in-academic-support-and-attainment-within-the-medical-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-medicine\/2020\/06\/24\/celebrating-transformational-changes-in-academic-support-and-attainment-within-the-medical-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating transformational changes in academic support within the medical school"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h2>\n

Dr Kathleen Leedham-Green discusses our School of Medicine’s recent transformation in academic support.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The problem: some students working hard without reaping the rewards<\/h2>\n

Our medical students generally work extremely hard, so why were some flourishing, while others were struggling with the academic load or even failing their assessments despite putting in the effort?<\/p>\n

In the words of one of our students:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked so hard. I\u2019m exhausted. I\u2019m a straight A* student. I can\u2019t believe I\u2019ve failed\u201d<\/p>\n

This was the question that was at the heart of the recent transformation in academic support led by Mike Emerson<\/a> at Imperial College\u2019s School of Medicine.<\/p>\n

A new approach to learning informed by the cognitive sciences<\/h2>\n

Taking an evidence-based approach, Mike looked at the science of successful learning as outlined in the book \u201cMake It Stick<\/a>\u201d from Harvard University Press, and drew on the expertise of Cristina Koppel<\/a> in metacognition and the science of high performance.<\/p>\n

Working together, they developed a programme for all first year medical students, supported by a team of Academic Tutors teaching this simple message: that memorisation, for example by copying out notes or highlighting text, is both effortful and relatively unproductive when compared to more active strategies. They introduced students to approaches such as interleaving, spaced repetition, effortful recall, concept mapping, and complex mastery through application of learning to real-life problems. Above all students needed the confidence and flexibility to try new strategies for learning, to reflect on the effectiveness of those strategies, and to move on if they weren\u2019t working: also known as \u2018generative learning\u2019, or good old fashioned \u2018trial and error\u2019.<\/p>\n

Making it happen: coaching approaches to academic support<\/h2>\n

Having taught students the cognitive side of what needed to happen, they also needed strategies to support the associated changes in behaviour. Luckily they were able to draw on the behavioural sciences via the expertise of Arti Maini<\/a>, one of the authors of \u201cCoaching for Health<\/a>\u201d. Rather than telling students what to do, Academic Tutors learnt to invite students as equals to articulate their own learning goals, to support them in adopting the growth mind-set needed to review and revise their learning strategies, and to develop the self-efficacy to overcome barriers within a supported tutorial environment.<\/p>\n

So, did it<\/strong> work?<\/h2>\n

Mike, Arti and Cristina worked with Sue Smith<\/a> and Kay Leedham-Green<\/a>\u00a0 from Imperial\u2019s Medical Education Research Unit<\/a> to develop an evaluation strategy. They surveyed 141 first year students and found that 95% of respondents described their relationship with their academic tutor as positive; and 94% said the programme had helped them think critically about their study skills. They looked at two pre-existing validated scales for Mind-Set<\/a> and Self-Efficacy<\/a> and found a strong positive correlation between the programmes self-rated impacts and the self-efficacy scale. Looking at the detailed qualitative responses, they examined value creation:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h2>\n

What did students feel about the programme?<\/h2>\n