The Clinical Education research group have been investigating the academic and non-academic factors which may affect student performance with the goal of being able to predict when students may be at risk of poor academic performance.
At the AECC we would like our students to get the most out of their learning experience and achieve the best results they can. As such, we have been looking at academic and non-academic factors which are linked to poor performance and optimal performance.
If we can find factors which are linked to poor performance, we can address these early in future years to ensure better performance. If we can find factors which are linked to optimal performance, we can encourage and nurture these factors through the year to help students achieve the best results.
The first study examined the Influence of year-on-year performance on final degree classification in a chiropractic master’s degree program. This involved an analysis of student’s assessment grades over their period of study at the AECC to see if performance in one year can predict performance in another year or whether it is possible to predict degree classification based on previous assessment results.
Currently, the team are analysing non-academic factors, such as attendance, previous education, library usage, additional learning needs (ALN), time management, study skills and stress, and whether these can help identify which students are at risk of failing.
Future work in this area is ongoing both within the AECC and through collaborations with other universities such as the Welsh Institute of Chiropractic, to build a bigger picture of the type of student who may need additional assistance in their education so that they can be appropriately supported to achieve their full potential.
Results of these studies have been presented at international conferences, such as the World Federation of Chiropractic Conference in Washington D.C. and the European Chiropractors’ Union Conferences in Dublin and Cyprus. The following papers have been published or are currently under review by research journals focussing on chiropractic education.