Pharmacy Students’ Perceptions of Reflective Portfolios, and the Effect of the Portfolio on Students’ Deep Information-Processing Skills

Objectives. The objectives of this study were to evaluate pharmacy students’ perceptions of the educational value of their reflective portfolio as they progressed through their academic years, and to gain understanding of the factors that might influence these perceptions. In addition, the effect of the reflective portfolio on their deep information-processing (DIP) skills was investigated.Methods. The students’ perceptions of using reflective portfolios was evaluated using a perception questionnaire at the beginning of each of years 2, 3 and 4 as part of a longitudinal study; this questionnaire comprised constructs under the sections of personal development, professional development, effectiveness of the portfolio, portfolio support and guidance received. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to determine whether there was any significant difference among the perception scores of different academic years, while the Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine differences between the scores of two academic years....