Measuring attitude change in medical students: lessons from a short course on global health

dc.creator	Adrian Hastings
dc.creator	Raúl Pardíñaz-Solís
dc.creator	Matthew Phillips
dc.creator	Martina Hennessy
dc.date	2012-01-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-07-20T22:23:50Z
dc.date.available	2015-07-20T22:23:50Z
dc.identifier	10.4081/3587
dc.identifier	2038-9531
dc.identifier	2038-954X
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/b5b2fe38fc1c49e7bf5a713b4da80f9e
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/21053
dc.description	<p>Educators seek to influence attitudes as well as enhance knowledge and skills. We wanted to know how a one week course on global health had altered the attitudes of the learners. We were aware that analysing group responses to Likert items using an interval approach has methodological flaws. All 126 third-year students at Trinity College Medical School were invited to complete an attitude survey before and after the course, with 18 Likert items. Changes in attitudes to each item were analysed by interval and ordinal methods. A total of 82 (65%) students completed both surveys and gave consent. There was a nine-fold difference in attitude change by individual students. Attitudes changed markedly in relation to some items and little to others. Analysing responses using an ordinal method revealed significant change regardless of whether responses to each item before the course were clustered at one end of the scale or were more neutral. The most sensitive and reliable analysis was an ordinal approach, presenting degrees of attitude change by individuals to each item. When presented by the ‘change step’ method in a histogram important attitude change by individuals within the group is revealed, that the interval method conceals.</p>
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	PAGEPress Publications
dc.relation	http://www.pagepress.org/journals/index.php/med/article/view/3587
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/2038-9531
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/2038-954X
dc.rights	CC BY-NC
dc.source	Medical Education Development, Vol 2, Iss 1 (2012)
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.title	Measuring attitude change in medical students: lessons from a short course on global health
dc.type	article