Journal of Medical Education and Development
Year:2018 | Volume:13 | Issue:2 |Papers Count:9

Introduction: Retraction of articles occurs as a result of scientific misconducts or honest errors. The present study aimed to examine retracted articles on PubMed database written by Iranian authors in biomedicine. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study، all retracted articles on PubMed database written by Iranian authors were retrieved using the following keywords; Iran [AD] AND "Retracted Publication"[PT]. The following data were extracted based on a specific form: first and last names of the first author، publication year، journal name، country of publication، number of citations، and retraction notices. Then، retraction notices were examined and the reasons for retraction were categorized. Results: In total، there were 145 retracted articles، showing a rise in recent years. However، the ratio of retracted articles to all articles was not increased. Plagiarism (46. 90%)، compromised peer review (40%)، and duplicate publication (19. 31%) were the most important reasons for retraction. Over 80% of articles (118 articles) were retracted due to scientific misconduct. More than 32% of all articles (47 articles) were published in three journals. The largest number of articles pertained to biochemistry and molecular biology (25 articles)، pharmacology and pharmacy (24 articles)، and oncology (21 articles). Conclusions: It is essential that the reasons for scientific misconduct be identified and proper education be offered to students and researchers. These behaviors can be avoided by empowering researchers by attending in writing and research ethics training while penalizing those who misconduct.

Introduction: Critical thinking is a set of mental attitudes and habits that promote the ability to research، problem solving، self-management، decision-making and lifelong learning in students. The purpose of this study was to predict the tendency toward critical thinking and self-learning based on epistemological beliefs in dentistry students. The research method was cross sectional descriptive. The statistical population of the study was all enrolled dentistry students of University of Medical Sciences (221 people) in the academic year 2018-2017Methods: Among them، 150 students (62 boys and 88 girls) were selected by random sampling method. In order to collect data، the Schumer's Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire (1998)، Pintrich and De Groot Learning Strategies Questionnaire (1990) and Badri's Critical Thinking Scale (2007) were used. Results: To analyze data، Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used. Findings showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between epistemological beliefs and the tendency to critical thinking and between self-learning and its components with critical thinking. Also، regression analysis showed that the epistemological beliefs predict 41% and self-learning predicts 45% of critical thinking. Conclusion: Learning autonomy and epistemological beliefs can be considered as influential factors on the students' critical thinking.

Introduction: The study of the current educational status of the Iranian universities and higher education system reveals that higher education does not incorporate the most essential soft skills required by the learners. The educational curriculum must reorganize these skills to improve learners’ educational and professional competence in general skills in parallel with academic and specific skills. This study aims to provide a framework for the basic soft skills courses university students are required to cover during their academic education in medical universitiesMethods: It was a qualitative study in which 57 MSc students of midwifery (14)، nursing (35) and operating room (8) and 12 academic members in these fields of study (4) in each field) in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences were selected purposefully as they were the only available participants and volunteer lecturers in 1395-96. All of the students were working in clinical centers three days in a week. The students’ behaviors as far as their academic and occupational needs، expectations and general skills together with their academic skills were observed by the researcher. At the same time، their occupational and research behaviors، expectations، needs and skills in academic and clinical contexts were observed by their experienced content teachers. Individual and focus-group semi-structured interviews with the students and individual interviews with their content teachers، observations and field notes were used to achieve a comprehensive view of the skills required for work and education which implicitly incorporate the skills for having a healthy life. Data collection was continued until the point of saturation is reached. The interviews were recorded and transcribed with the participants’ consent. The primary themes and sub-themes were extracted through thematic analysis. To ensure consistency and accuracy of data، credibility، transferability، dependability and conformability criteria were assessed. Result: In this study، through data analysis، six main categories together with their subcategories were extracted from the data. The results revealed that they had various educational expectations and needs as far as soft skills are concerned. These skills were as follows: individual، spiritual، hygienic، educational-academic، occupational and communicative. Conclusion: The findings indicated that students are urgently required to be equipped with soft skills to enhance the quality of their individual، academic، occupational and social life. However، these skills have been neglected throughout their academic education. Therefore، their traditional educational curriculum needs to be revisited and modified in order to train productive graduates. To achieve this goal، integrated constant collaboration and consultation of different groups such as university students، graduates، employees، employers، academic members، parents and policy makers in ministry of education and higher education are required.

Introduction: The educational system of each society is concerned as the fundamental of its socio-economic development. Educational development is one of the important factors in evaluating educational systems. This study aims to investigate the relationship between metacognitive beliefs and self-efficiency with the students’ educational achievement of the students of Ferdows Faculty of Para-Medical Sciences in 2016Methods: This is a descriptive study on all the faculty students. To gather data، Morgan’ and Grinkes Self-Efficiency questionnaire and Pintrich and Degroot‘ Meta-Cognition and Learning Strategy Questionnaire welles and certwright Hotton were used. Data were analyzed by SPSS 18. . . Result: The student’ s educational self-efficiency، meta-cognitive beliefs، and educational achievement were average (85. 3%). The findings show that there is a ppositive and meaningful relationship between meta-cognitive strategies and self-efficiency with educational achievements (p<0. 05). A positive relationship between student’ s meta-cognitive beliefs and educational self-efficiency was observed. Conclusion: Increasing the students’ self-efficiency and meta-cognitive strategies can enhance their educational achievement.

Introduction: Proper learning strategies are a prerequisite for successful performance in alleducational environments. This study aims to investigate the use of various learning strategies inmedical students and its relationship with their academic performance. Methods: In this cross sectional study, data were collected from Medical students in ShirazUniversity of Medical Sciences. The statistical population of the study included all medical studentsstudying in the academic year 2016-2017 that 250 students were selected by simple randomsampling method. Data were collected through motivated strategies for learning questionnaire(MSLQ) which was developed by Printich et al (1993). In this study two learning strategies wereinvestigated; a meta-cognitive strategy including: planning, monitoring and regulating strategies (12items) and b) resources management strategies including: managing time and study environment (8items); peer learning (3 items) and help seeking (4 items). Validity and reliability of thequestionnaire were confirmed. Result: The results showed that the correlation between meta-cognitive learning strategies andresource management components (managing time and study environment, peer learning, helpseeking) with students’ academic performance were significant (P<0. 01). From which learningstrategies components, meta-cognitive strategies with β =0. 144 and managing time and studyenvironment with β =0. 277 could predict students’ academic performance. The results of ANOVAtest showed there there were no difference between students studying at different levels (basicsciences, clinical clerckship) in terms of various learning strategies. There was no significantdifference between male and female students in any of the learning strategies. Conclusion: The results of this study showed the importance of meta-cognitive and resourcemanagement strategies in predicting students' academic performance. Accordingly, the use of thesestrategies leads to increased learning in students.

Introduction: One of the essential skills which helps healthcare management students succeed inleadership is development of critical thinking skills during their education. Our study objective wasto assess critical thinking skills among healthcare management students of Shahid SadoughiUniversity of Medical Sciences in 2016. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among 90 healthcare managementstudents in two bachelor and master’ degree studying in health faculty of Shahid Sadoughi Universityof Medical Sciences in 2016. To gather data, a standard questionnaire “ California Critical ThinkingSkill Test (CCTST)” was used and data were analyzed by SPSS 16 through descriptive and analyticalstatistical testsResults: Mean scores of critical thinking skill and its different dimensions were in a moderate levelindicating its satisfactory condition among participants. Results of correlation test among studyvariables only confirmed a significant statistical relation between evaluation aspect and educationdegree (p<0. 05). Moreover a direct significant correlation was recognized between the score ofcritical thinking skill and its related dimensions (p<0. 05). Conclusion: Findings revealed that total score of students’ critical thinking skills was within thenorm range; but their weakness in some aspects highlighted the importance of constant developmentof such skills among healthcare management students to help them better succeed in leadership tasks.