Assessment of preclinical students’ academic motivation before and after a three-day academic affair program

Figures & data

Table 1 Details of the intervention program before beginning second year preclinical curriculum at Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand in 2014

Day	Time	Type of activity	Expected results
Day 1	10 am to	Dialogues by the expert in personality development:	Personality development to be a good doctor
	12 pm	How to behave as a good doctor Theory and practice of personality development
	1 pm to	Interactive talks and discussion by two psychiatrists: How	To understand social value of the doctors
	5 pm	to ignite the desire to become a doctor expected by the society Small group discussion of students about the future of medicine Pictorial expression: drawing pictures in groups	To adapt to ever-growing knowledge in medicine, medical science, and medical technology
	7 pm to	Group work: “How to enjoy preclinical years” (Part 1)	To recognize the importance of basic medical
	9 pm	Students acquired information from faculties and senior students	subjects: Introducing the nature of subjects, teaching and learning approaches, and the significance of preclinical subjects in medicine
Day 2	8 am to	Group work “How to enjoy preclinical Years” (Part 2): Each	To recognize the importance of basic medical
	12 pm	group analyzed and summarized the results Making poster and poster presentation Selection for best poster award	subjects: Introducing the nature of subjects, teaching and learning approaches, and the significance of preclinical subjects in medicine
	1 pm to	Case scenario of coping with stress in preclinical years:	To understand: 1) the academic steps which would
	4 pm	Small group discussion of students facilitated by faculty staff	be experienced in preclinical years; 2) appropriate behavior to use social media; 3) the disciplines; and 4) how to avoid academic cheating
	7 pm to	MDCU “Got Talent”: A talent show of medical students	An opportunity to express students’ leadership,
	9 pm	where students perform singing, dancing, aerobics, cheerleading, drumming, or martial arts	teamwork, and creativity
Day 3	8 am to	Competitive debate: Teams debate	To find out what should be appropriate behaviors of
	12 noon	Summary presented by the team leaders Selection of the best one	medical students, and develop their code of conduct

Notes: MDCU means a batch of students studying at Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, to become Doctor of Medicine. “MDCU Got Talent” was the name of talent show which was part of the intervention program.

Abbreviation: AMS, academic motivation scale.

Table 2 Characteristics of the students (N=296)

Characteristics	Number	Percent
Age (years)
18	28	9.46
19	228	77.03
20	37	12.05
21	2	0.68
24	1	0.34
Sex
Male	162	54.73
Female	134	45.27
Living place
In campus dormitory	6	2.03
Outside campus	286	96.62
No response	4	1.35
Having a doctor in the family
Yes	126	43.92
No	166	56.08
No response	4	1.35
Scholarship
Full	16	5.41
Partial	10	3.38
No	263	88.85
No response	7	2.36
Province of origin
Bangkok	165	55.74
Outside Bangkok	131	44.26
Graduated high school
Private school	14	4.7
Public school	271	91.6
No response	11	3.7

Figure 1 Box and whisker plots showing distribution of base line and post intervention levels of Academic Motivation Scale.

Note: From left to right, the constructs are in the order of the least autonomous (amotivation) to the most autonomous (IM to experience stimulation), showing the continuum of self-determination theory.
Abbreviations: IM, intrinsic motivation; EM, extrinsic motivation.

Table 3 Changes in academic motivation constructs among second year medical students, before and after a three-day intervention program, implemented before beginning preclinical curriculum

Subscale of AMS	Pretest	Posttest	P-value	n
	Med (IQR)	Med (IQR)
Assessment results
Univariate analysis
IM to experience	15 (11–17)	15 (12–18)	0.23	290
stimulation
IM toward	17 (14–20)	18 (14–21)	<0.001	289
accomplishment
IM to know	20 (17–23)	20 (17–23)	0.60	290
EM identification	21 (18–23)	21 (18–23)	0.11	292
EM introjected regulation	17 (14–20)	19 (15–22)	<0.001	291
EM external regulation	22 (19–25)	22 (19–25)	0.28	292
Amotivation	8 (5–11)	7 (5–10)	<0.001	290
Multivariate analysis of variance
Difference in seven			0.036a
constructs of AMS
by intervention

Notes:

a Statistical significance by multivariate analysis of variance. Statistical significance by P-value of Wilcoxon signed-rank test unless specified as other. Subscale are in the vertical order of self-determination continuum from the least autonomous (amotivation) at the bottom of the table, to the most autonomous (intrinsic to experience stimulation) at the top of the table.

Abbreviations: Med, median; IQR, interquartile range; IM, intrinsic motivation; EM, extrinsic motivation; AMS, academic motivation scale; n, sample size in each analysis.

Table 4 Visual analog scale self-assessment of motivation to study to be a medical doctor, before and after a three-day intervention program

Self assessment of academic motivation	Pretest	Posttest	P-value	n
	Med (IQR)	Med (IQR)
VAS to become an MD	6.9 (5.6–8)	7.2 (6–8.25)	<0.001	288
VAS to become a specialist	7.15 (6–8.3)	7.45 (6.25–8.55)	<0.001	288

Note: Statistical significance by P-value of Wilcoxin signed-rank test.

Abbreviations: VAS, visual analog scale; Med, median; IQR, interquartile range; MD, Doctor of Medicine.