Tutors and self-assessment of medical students' performance in pre-clinical problem-based learning tutorial sessions

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Background: It is currently acknowledged that developing the skills in self-assessment is imperative for the continuing learning of every physician. Objective : This study aimed to assess students' performance in tutorial sessions in a hybrid problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum conducted during the pre-clinical years through self-and tutors assessment. Methods : Sixty nine first year and eighty second year students of the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) Program at the Princess NourahBint Abdulrahman  University  participated in the study. Both self-and tutors assessment of students performance within the PBL tutorial setting was conducted using a validated questionnaire developed by Valle et al., (1999). Mean ratings between self-and tutors assessments were compared using paired t-test. Association between self and tutors  assessments  and PBL written exam scores was analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficients. Results: Results revealed a significant difference between self and tutors assessment for first year medical students under scoring their own performance than the tutors' with a total mean score of  79.99 (± 25.87) and 98.02 (± 8.71) respectively ( P=0.001).Tutors assessment correlated poorly with self-assessment (r=0.344). No correlation between self-assessment and exam scores was observed but a strong correlation  (r=0.726 & P=0.045) was shown for tutor assessment and exam scores. In contrast to the first year group, the total score showed no significant difference between self- and tutors assessment in second year students. There was strong correlation between tutor and self-assessment (r=0.722& P=0.041) as well as between tutor assessment and exam scores (r=0.806 & P=0.030 ) but not with self-assessment and exam scores. Conclusion: This study has presented reservations with regards to the use of self-assessment scores as part of the overall student grade in PBL.