WGEA/WGSA/WOSR 2017

Abstract Body: Introduction An established positive relationship between metacognition and learning suggests that specific training and opportunity in reflection and metacognition would be beneficial to medical students. Our research group includes academic support staff, curriculum assessment administrators and a block director/teaching faculty member. The hypothesis developed by our research group was based initially on our reading of the book, Make It Stick: The science of successful learning. From this book and other published research in medical education, we posited that teaching students to reflect on performance on a variety of assessed activities and experiences in medical school, and giving them directed feedback on the quality of their reflection, would assist in improving their academic achievement. We established the goal and construct of metacognition with Year 1 medical students during orientation activities. This included an assigned reading, classroom presentations designed to introduce the framework for guided reflective writing and the importance of metacognition in learning complex information and skills, followed by multiple writing assignments with guided prompts relevant to Year 1 assessment activities. Using a six level rubric created by medical educators specifically for evaluating reflective writing, we rated and gave feedback to students on their assignments. Ratings are not shared with the students, only directed feedback designed to encourage more in-depth reflection in the future about their learning and desired/expected level of achievement. Session Outcomes Through participation in this discussion session, participants will be able to: Identify resources for teaching medical students about the value of guided reflection; Describe an institutional approach to developing curricular activities for reflection in medical education; Understand how to evaluate reflective writing and provide directed feedback to students; Consider participating in a collaborative research opportunity to analyze the relationship between students’ ability to reflect on the development of their learning and their acquisition of required knowledge, skills and attitudes during medical school. Small Group Discussion Timeline and Methods: Introduction of Research Question and Methodology including rubric use (10 minutes) Group discussion of resources for teaching value of reflective writing (10 minutes) Examples of writing prompts used with assessment activities (10 minutes) Group discussion of measures of academic achievement across curriculum (10 minutes) Summary of future writing assignments in UME Years 1-4 (5 minutes) Invitation to collaborate on reflective writing research project (5 minutes) Reference Brown PC, Roediger HL, McDaniel MA, (2014). Make it stick: the science of successful learning. Belknap.