The relationship between medical student engagement in the provision of the school’s education programme and learning outcomes

Abstract

Introduction

Student engagement in the provision of the school’s education programme (educational student engagement) plays an important role in quality assurance in medical education. However, little is known whether this specific type of student engagement has effects on the learning outcomes for the involved medical students.

Methods

This study was based on a national-wide survey in China among medical students with 123,055 responses. The questionnaire was designed using international and Chinese national standards. T-test, analysis of variance, multivariate regression, and regression with interaction terms were used.

Results

Educational student engagement was positively associated with medical students’ learning outcomes in Clinical Practice, Science and Scholarship, Health and Society, and Professionalism. Besides, the influence was heterogeneous among participants at different learning phases. Learning outcomes in Clinical Practice were strongly associated with educational student engagement efficiently at the Clinical Medical Education and the Clerkship Rotation phases, and learning outcomes in Science and Scholarship were best correlated with the Clerkship Rotation phase.

Conclusion

Educational student engagement is positively associated with the learning outcomes, with the greatest effect on learning outcomes in Clinical Practice and the least effect in Professionalism. Besides, it has a greater impact on medical students at senior learning phases.

Keywords:

• Student engagement
• sudent engagement in provision of the school’s education programme
• medical students
• learning outcomes
• basic medical education

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all participants who completed the survey and are much grateful to National Center for Health Professions Education Development in Peking University for the implementation of this survey.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, the grant number is 72174013.

Notes on contributors

Xiaoming Xu

Xiaoming Xu, Master of Education, Ph.D candidate, received her master’s degree in Adult Education from East China Normal University. She is now doing her PhD research at the Center for Educational Development and Research in health sciences (CEDAR), University Medical Center Groningen. Her research interests include the internationalization of medical education, and the international learning environment.

N. A. Bos

N. A. Bos, Ph.D, is a professor in Internationalization of Education in the Medical Sciences. He is the founder of the first English taught undergraduate medical curriculum in the Netherlands. He is very much involved in organization and evaluation of international medical education ranging from preparatory education as dean of the Pre-University College to the PhD training program as member of the management team of the Graduate School Medical Sciences of the University of Groningen.

Hongbin Wu

Hongbin Wu, Ph.D, is an assistant professor at National Centre for Health Professions Education Development/Institute of Medical Education, Peking University. He holds a PhD from Peking University focusing on health professions education. He has published articles in Medical Education, Computers & Education, BMC Medical Education and other top-tier journals. He has also translated books such as A practical guide for medical teachers and Researching medical education. He has worked as an investigator in many national-level research projects and launched the China Medical Student Survey.