Designing formative assessments to improve anatomy exam performance

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Anatomy Education
• Cognitive Science in Learning

Background:

• Formative assessments are crucial for gauging student learning in anatomy.
• Their impact on student mastery and exam performance is recognized but not fully understood.
• Existing research lacks clarity on how specific formative assessment characteristics influence anatomy exam outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between formative assessment characteristics and student exam performance in a clinical anatomy course.
• To determine if higher cognitive levels, topic integration, and visuospatial elements in formative questions predict better student exam scores.
• To identify key features of formative assessments that enhance anatomy learning and retention.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of formative and summative assessment questions from a clinical anatomy course (2015-2018).
• Assessment of questions for cognitive level, learning objective integration, and visuospatial content.
• Hierarchical linear modeling used to correlate assessment variables with student exam performance, controlling for demographics.

Main Results:

• The strongest predictor of exam performance was the inclusion of specific learning objectives within formative assessments.
• Students performed better on exam questions with visuospatial elements when formative assessments also featured visuospatial learning objectives.
• Cognitive level and topic integration of formative questions did not significantly correlate with student exam performance.

Conclusions:

• Broad topic coverage in formative assessments is vital for improving anatomy student performance.
• Aligning visuospatial elements between formative assessments and exams may enhance learning in anatomy.
• Standardizing question formats across formative assessments and summative exams could benefit student mastery in anatomy courses.