• Mahwish Arooj, Khadijah Mukhtar, Rehan Ahmed Khan, and Tayyaba Azhar.
• Mahwish Arooj, MBBS, MME, M. Phil, PHD Physiology. Professor of Physiology and Director, DME University College of Medicine and Dentistry, Lahore, Pakistan.
• Pak J Med Sci. 2021 Mar 1; 37 (2): 445-449.

ObjectivesMCQ's and SEQ's are the most widely used assessment tool in dental colleges across Pakistan. This study explores the impact of assessment tool: MCQ's and SEQ's on learning approach of dental students and also identifies correlation between these assessment tools and deep & surface learning approaches in integrated and discipline based curriculum.MethodsA quantitative co-relational study was conducted in 2018 on 2nd and 4th year dental students. A pre-validated "Revised Study Process Questionnaire" was used. Spearman's rho correlation coefficient and Wilcoxon signed ranks test were applied to determine the relationship between learning approaches and assessment tools. Internal consistency was calculated by Cronbach's alpha.ResultsNinety six students out of one hundred and fifty completed the questionnaire. Correlation test showed that surface approach correlates significantly with MCQ's (0.73) while no co-relation exists with SEQ's (-0.14) in our study. Deep approach has a strong and significant correlation with SEQ's (0.80) as compared to MCQ's (0.056).ConclusionAssessment tool has an impact on learning approaches used by the students. It was concluded that students used to prefer deep learning approach while preparing for SEQ's as they were designed at higher cognitive level, whereas, they preferred surface approach while preparing for MCQ's as they were developed at low cognitive order.Copyright: © Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences.

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