A special tutorial for minority medical students: an account of a year's experience

A small number of minority medical students were referred for a year-long tutorial to improve their problem-solving skills and to assist them in retaking failed basic science courses. Both the operation of the tutorial and attemtps to reconstruct what had gone wrong the previous year brought attention to the crucial importance of affective factors in the students' learning efforts. It proved to be possible to elucidate some of the dynamics whereby affective reactions apparently enter into instructor-student interactions and are significantly involved in the process of adjusting to medical school. Following the tutorial, which dealt with issues of trust and self-esteem as well as with cognitive problems, the students all had a successful year and were able to rejoin the main stream of students entering clinical training. It was concluded that cognitive problems of medical students experiencing academic difficulty may not be resolvable without dealing with affective considerations. Recommendations are given for dealing with affective issues.