Academic Achievement, Challenges and Coping Strategies of Allied Health Students in Learning Biostatistics

Abstract

This study aims to determine the academic achievement, challenges, and coping strategies of paramedical students in learning Biostatistics. Pairwise association between academic achievement, challenges, and coping strategies of the respondents were also determined. The study involved 171 third-year paramedical students from Cagayan State University. Findings showed that the respondents achieved average mastery in Biostatistics. With the highest area of mastery in data presentation. On the other hand, the respondents exhibited low mastery in analyzing normal distribution. School-related challenges posed the greatest challenges for the students. This includes limited resources, scarcity of computers and other-technology-assisted resources to learn, problems in terms of internet connectivity, large class sizes, and unavailability of support services. Student-related challenges included difficulty remembering information, conducting analyses, and interpreting results. Whereas teacher-related challenges primarily involved limited time for processing lessons. On the other hand, respondents employed various coping strategies to address these challenges. They actively sought out additional learning materials, conducted brainstorming, and requested clarification from teachers. Notably, student-related coping strategies were the most prevalent. Interestingly, a weak negative correlation existed between challenges and coping strategies.