Cognitive levels in testing knowledge in evidence-based medicine: a cross sectional study

BMC Medical Education

Table 3 Reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s alpha) for overall sample and subgroups (N = 203)^a

Variable (n of items)	Overall (N = 203)	First-year students (n = 119)	Third-year students (n = 70)	Experts (n = 14)
Overall test (N = 36)	0.37	0.32	0.29	0.73
Lower levels (N = 18)	0.24	0.19	0.09	0.72
Higher levels (N = 18)	0.10	0.05	0.04	0.62
Cognitive levels:
Knowledge (N = 6)	0.24	0.23	0.20	0.62
Understanding (N = 6)	0.21	0.08	0.34	0.26
Application (N = 6)	0.16	0.22	0.01	0.56
Analysis (N = 6)	0.17	0.27	0.12	0.45
Evaluation (N = 6)	−0.12	− 0.17	− 0.15	0.47
Synthesis (N = 6)	0.01	−0.04	−0.13	0.55
EBM domains:
Evidence based practice (N = 5)	0.06	−0.07	0.30	−0.10
Internal validity (N = 5)	0.08	−0.11	0.32	0.40
Clinical importance (N = 5)	0.12	0.04	0.27	−0.52
Study design (N = 5)	−0.10	− 0.22	−0.10	0.02
Sources of evidence (N = 5)	0.10	0.10	−0.05	0.38
Diagnostic studies (N = 5)	0.18	0.07	0.09	0.49

^aNegative coefficients are indicators of low or even negative correlations between items [20]

ISSN: 1472-6920