Differential learning gains in professional conversation training: A latent profile analysis of competence acquisition in teacher-parent and physician-patient communication

This article presents an analysis of differential learning gains in an experimental study on professional conversation competence. Pre-service teachers and medical students (N = 165) received parallel-designed training on teacher–parent and physician–patient conversations. Outcomes were assessed using high inference ratings of videotaped conversations with simulated patients/parents. Latent profile analysis identified four classes of participants demonstrating differential achievement in three aspects of conversation competence: (a) structuring the conversation, (b) advancing a problem solution, and (c) establishing a positive interpersonal relationship. As expected, training conditions and student domain predicted class membership. Finally, relating class membership to additional low inference ratings of the videos revealed visible differences in the quality of the participants’ conversations and provided evidence for the construct validity of the latent profile solution. The study shows how mixture analyses, such as latent profile analysis, are a useful tool for investigating differential learning gain to enrich the understanding of training effectiveness.