Abstract:
Background: The aim of this study was to investigate undergraduate medical student’s domain-specific
learning. Method: The research tool was a structured essay question formulated to assess factual and affective knowledge
and application and synthesis of knowledge .The question was administered to 151 students. Results: Mean score on the
recall question was significantly higher than the other two domains. Total scores of female students were significantly higher
than male students (P<0.05). Gender-wise difference in scores was not significant in any specific domain area. There was no
significant relationship between factual knowledge and total scores. However, there was a significant linear relationship
between total scores and the two areas of affective knowledge (r=0.78) and application and synthesis of knowledge (r=0.6).
Findings indicate that affective knowledge and application of knowledge are closely related to overall acquisition of knowledge (P<0.0005). Conclusion: Teaching and assessment in higher-order knowledge domains and affective knowledge needs
to be developed. Questions dealing with affective knowledge and testing higher-order cognitive abilities are more discriminatory than questions testing at the recall level.
