{"title":"Factors Affecting Academic Performance in Anatomical Sciences at a South African University: Students’ Perspectives","authors":"G. V. van Zyl, J. Bezuidenhout, A. Adefuye","doi":"10.1080/18146627.2019.1596748","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract A major goal of higher education is to create an environment conducive to quality student learning. Medical practitioners should possess a sound knowledge of anatomy to enable them to diagnose patients accurately and treat them successfully. Studies have reported a decline in the knowledge of anatomy acquired by students, recent medical graduates and newly qualified medical trainees. Various interdependent factors—individual, organisational, environmental, and relating to academic programmes—have been reported to influence first-year students’ academic performance. The study reported on aimed to obtain the perspectives of first-year medical students at a South African university on the effect of individual, organisational, environmental and academic programme factors on their academic performance in anatomical sciences. The research was designed as a descriptive, exploratory study that used a self-administered questionnaire with both quantitative and qualitative components. The questionnaires were administered manually to 133 first-year medical students to obtain their perspectives on the effect of selected personal, institution/faculty, course/module and curriculum factors on their academic performance. Factors that had a positive effect on their academic performance were personal motivation, academic ability, intelligence, academic environment, the outcomes-based curriculum, and the organisation and layout of the module; while factors that had a negative effect were workload, load of independent study, difficulty of content, difficulty of language used in study material, and assessment. The study found that certain factors had both a positive and a negative effect on academic performance. The results can be used to address problematic areas of the module to improve academic performance.","PeriodicalId":44749,"journal":{"name":"Africa Education Review","volume":"17 1","pages":"52 - 73"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2020-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/18146627.2019.1596748","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Africa Education Review","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2019.1596748","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Abstract A major goal of higher education is to create an environment conducive to quality student learning. Medical practitioners should possess a sound knowledge of anatomy to enable them to diagnose patients accurately and treat them successfully. Studies have reported a decline in the knowledge of anatomy acquired by students, recent medical graduates and newly qualified medical trainees. Various interdependent factors—individual, organisational, environmental, and relating to academic programmes—have been reported to influence first-year students’ academic performance. The study reported on aimed to obtain the perspectives of first-year medical students at a South African university on the effect of individual, organisational, environmental and academic programme factors on their academic performance in anatomical sciences. The research was designed as a descriptive, exploratory study that used a self-administered questionnaire with both quantitative and qualitative components. The questionnaires were administered manually to 133 first-year medical students to obtain their perspectives on the effect of selected personal, institution/faculty, course/module and curriculum factors on their academic performance. Factors that had a positive effect on their academic performance were personal motivation, academic ability, intelligence, academic environment, the outcomes-based curriculum, and the organisation and layout of the module; while factors that had a negative effect were workload, load of independent study, difficulty of content, difficulty of language used in study material, and assessment. The study found that certain factors had both a positive and a negative effect on academic performance. The results can be used to address problematic areas of the module to improve academic performance.
期刊介绍:
Africa Education Review is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal that seeks the submission of unpublished articles on current educational issues. It encourages debate on theory, policy and practice on a wide range of topics that represent a variety of disciplines, interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary and transdisciplinary interests on international and global scale. The journal therefore welcomes contributions from associated disciplines including sociology, psychology and economics. Africa Education Review is interested in stimulating scholarly and intellectual debate on education in general, and higher education in particular on a global arena. What is of particular interest to the journal are manuscripts that seek to contribute to the challenges and issues facing primary and secondary in general, and higher education on the African continent and in the global contexts in particular. The journal welcomes contributions based on sound theoretical framework relating to policy issues and practice on the various aspects of higher education.