Accuracy of student self-assessment ability compared to their own performance in a problem-based learning medical program: a correlation study.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of self-assessment ability of students enrolled in a Problem-based Learning program.


METHODS
Seventy students enrolled in their third year of a four-year program were invited to voluntarily participate in the study. Self-assessment questionnaire was used to measure the students' self-assessment ability on two different occasions: 1) prior to standardised oral examination in predicting their performance, and 2) following the examination estimating their performance. The accuracy of the self-assessment was investigated by the relation between self-assessment and performance of the students.


RESULTS
Our study showed that self-assessment pre-examination was not accurate compared to performance at the oral examination (r ranging from 0.042 to 0.243). However, accuracy is slightly better when the student self-assesses his performance a posteriori, but the relation stays very low (r ranging from 0.257 to 0.334).


CONCLUSIONS
According to our results, the students in the third year of a self-directed Problem-based Learning medical four year program demonstrated poor accuracy of the self-assessment when compared to their own performance.
Tousignant
M
M
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of the Science of Rehabilitation, Physiotherapy Program, Ottawa, Canada.
DesMarchais
J E
JE
D000328:Adult; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006801:Humans; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D012655:Self-Evaluation Programs