Factors that influence first year medical students’ choice of student selected component

Abstract

Background: Undergraduate medical training should ensure students have choice and autonomy in the learning process, including the student selected components (SSCs) which should comprise up to about a third of the curriculum. Students’ choices of SSC will influence the knowledge, skills and attitudes they acquire.

Aim: To investigate how motivations and personality in first year medical students influence their choice of SSCs.

Method: A questionnaire regarding motivations for SSC choice and the NEO-FFI personality measure was administered to all first year students at a London medical school. Relationships with type of SSC were examined.

Results: A total of 82% (268/329) students responded. Six motivational factors arose from a principle components analysis of the questionnaire: future achievements, prior information, internal motivation, personal recommendation, convenience and certainty. Students with different motivational factors chose different SSCs, and had different personality traits. Weak but significant correlations were found between personality traits and motivational factors, but not between personality and SSC choice, or sex and SSC choice.

Conclusions: This offers insight into medical student choices of SSC and is the first step towards ensuring appropriate provision of modules that students wish to study to enable them to meet the demands of the medical profession.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jane Richardson

JANE RICHARDSON is a Senior Lecturer in medical education and lead for the Teaching and Professional Development Unit at the University College London Medical School, UCL. Her research interests include peer assisted learning, the student experience and postgraduate training in the early years.HENRY POTTS is a Lecturer in the Centre for Health Informatics and Multiprofessional Education (CHIME) at University College London. His research interests are in the use of the Internet by students and patients.KATHERINE WOOLF is a Research Associate in medical education in the Academic Centre for Medical Education at University College London Medical School. Her research interests relate to the factors that influence medical student performance, with a particular focus on the reasons that medical students from ethnic minorities underperform academically.PIPPA BARK is Principal Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Informatics and Multiprofessional Education (CHIME) at University College London. She is Course Director of the postgraduate programmes in clinical risk management. She is currently doing research for the General Medical Council on assessment of poorly performing doctors.DEBORAH GILL is a clinical academic in undergraduate medical education and Director of the Academic Centre for Medical Education at the University College London Medical School, UCL. She is sub dean for professional development and her research interests include peer assisted learning and how curricula are constructed and enacted.