Impact of formative assessment in Pharmacology learning: a three year follow up
Keywords:
Bachelor in Pharmacy, Formative assessment, Pharmacology, Student-centered educationAbstract
Aim: To evaluate the impact of formative assessment (FA) in the results obtained by students in the subject General Pharmacology, given in the third year of the Bachelor of Pharmacy.
Material and Methods: We compared the grades reached in years 2011/12 (without FA) with those in years 2012/13 and 2013/14 (with FA). FA was performed twice a week consisting in i) oral questions to the whole student group, ii) short-answer open questions (at the beginning or end of class) and iii) individual work or collaborative work in small groups (pharmacotherapeutic cases) answered in the classroom or at home. Corrections were made by the teacher, either in class or by written feedback (only opinions for improvement and progress were indicated). The work was not scored, only taking into account whether or not it had been performed. The marks were obtained as a result of an exam, which was similar in the three courses, combining multiple choice questions, short-answer questions and pharmacotherapeutic cases.
Results: The sum of failing students and students not taking exam significantly decreased after the introduction of the FA from 48.5 % (2011/12) to 23.4 % (2012/12) and 20.5 % (2013/14). The number of passing students significantly increased from 51.5 % (2011/12) to 76.6 % (2012/12) and 79.5 % (2013/14). We also noticed a shift in marks to higher values (significant increase in the proportion of B and A).
Conclusion: The introduction of FA as a learning strategy in General Pharmacology has a great impact on improving the quality of student learning.
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