Impact of Self-regulated Learning and Participation in Academic Support Programs on Performance of Pre-matriculation...

Medical schools implement pre-matriculation programs to assist at-risk students develop essential skills required to succeed academically. Pre-matriculation programs integrate academic success and support activities aimed at helping learners develop effective learning strategies. In this study, we evaluated differences in self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies and participation in voluntary academic support programs between high-performing and low-performing pre-matriculation learners.

A novel researcher-designed survey was electronically administered to 255 previous learners who had completed the Medical Education Readiness Program (MERP). Also, we retrieved learners' final average scores in MERP to measure their academic performance. We used one-way ANOVA to assess differences in learners' preferred learning strategies and participation rates based on their academic performance.

There were statistically significant differences in preferred learning strategies between high-performing and low-performing participants, F (4, 254) = 17.27, p < .05. High-achieving learners preferred SRL and active cognitive learning strategies, while low-performing learners preferred passive cognitive learning strategies. No significant differences were found in rates of participation in voluntary academic support programs between the two groups.

Self-regulated learning strategies may predict the academic performance of pre-matriculation medical learners. Educators can monitor pre-matriculation learners' studying skills as early identifiers of struggling at-risk learners.