Identifying Learning and Study Strategies as Predictors for Academic Performance in Gross Anatomy

Introduction Gross anatomy courses include large volumes of information that necessitate unique learning and study strategies for students to become proficient with the material. However, students often enter health professional schools with inadequate and inefficient study strategies, which place them at risk for academic difficulty in these courses. Early identification of poor learning and study strategies may allow for instructor interventions that significantly improve a student's future performance. The Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) is an assessment that measures students' learning and study practices as well as attitudes via subscales related to skill (information processing, selecting main ideas, and test strategies), will (attitude, motivation, and anxiety), and self‐regulation (concentration, time management, self‐testing, and using academic resources) components of strategic learning. LASSI subscales have been correlated with academic performance of chiropractic and medical students, but little is known about how they correlate with academic performance of students in other health professions programs. Purpose & Hypothesis The purpose of this study was to examine whether learning and studying strategies as determined by the LASSI assessment contribute to and/or predict academic performance of allied health students taking gross anatomy. Based on previous studies, we hypothesized that the LASSI subscales: test strategies, motivation, anxiety, concentration, and time management would be positive predictors of allied health student performance in gross anatomy. Methods At the beginning of the 9‐week gross anatomy course, allied health (Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Physician Assistant) students (n=117 out of 130) completed the LASSI survey, a 10‐scale, 60‐item online assessment of students' self‐awareness about and use of learning & study strategies. Allied health students were divided into tertiles (n=39 students each) based on final grades in the course (Low: grades 65.8–81.8; Middle: grades 82.5–90.1; High: grades 90.3–98.1). LASSI subscales between low, middle, and high cohorts were compared using a one‐way ANOVA and Tukey's post‐hoc analysis. Linear regression analyses were performed on each LASSI subscale to determine if there was a correlation to final grade. Results LASSI subscales for anxiety (β=0.453), attitude (β=0.484), concentration (β=0.388), motivation (β=0.488), test strategies (β=0.633), and time management (β=0.363) were significant predictors of overall performance in the class (p<0.05). LASSI subscales for anxiety (High: 21.05 vs. Low: 18.0), test strategies (High: 23.38 vs. Low: 24.41), and time management (High: 21.97 vs. Low: 19.56) were significantly different between low and high performing cohorts of students (p<0.05). Conclusions This preliminary study found that LASSI subscales for anxiety, test strategies, and time management were predictive of the final gross anatomy course performance of the allied health students. The fast‐paced nature of the course may lend itself to increased anxiety and difficulty with time management for students. Students who already have difficulties in these areas and with test‐taking strategies are at risk for poor performance. These results may be useful in creating early targeted interventions, such as counseling or anxiety and time management seminars, to help educators provide assistance for struggling students. This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .