To examine the associations between medical students' conceptions of learning, strategies to learning, and learning outcome in a medical humanities course

Yu Chun Chiu, Jyh Chong Liang, Hong Yuan Hsu, Tzong Shinn Chu, Kuan Han Lin*, Yen Yuan Chen, Chin Chung Tsai

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: By learning medical humanities, medical students are expected to shift from handling the diseases only to seeing a whole sick person. Therefore, understanding medical students' learning process and outcomes of medical humanities becomes an essential issue of medical education. Few studies have been conducted to explore factors surrounding medical students' learning process and outcomes of medical humanities. The objectives were: (1) to investigate the relationships between medical students' conceptions of learning and strategies to learning; and (2) to examine the relationships between students' strategies to learning and learning outcomes for medical humanities. Methods: We used the modified Approaches to Learning Medicine (mALM) questionnaire and Conceptions of Learning Medicine (COLM) questionnaire to measure the medical students' strategies to learning and conceptions of learning respectively. The learning outcome of medical humanities was measured using students' weighted grade in a medical humanities course. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to validate the COLM and mALM questionnaires, in which construct validity and reliability were assessed. Pearson's correlation was used to examine the relationships among the factors of COLM, mALM, and the weighted grade. Path analysis using structural equation modeling technique (SEM) was employed to estimate the structural relationships among the COLM, mALM, and the weighted grade. Results: Two hundred and seventy-five first-year medical students consented to participate in this study. The participants adopting surface strategies to learning were more likely to have unsatisfactory learning outcome (β =-0.14, p =.04). The basic-level conception of "Preparing for Testing" was negatively (β =-0.19, p <.01) associated with deep strategies of learning, and positively (β = 0.48, p <.01) associated with surface strategies of learning (β = 0.50, p <.01). The basic-level conception of "Skills Acquisition" was positively associated with deep strategies of learning (β = 0.23, p <.01). Conclusion: Medical educators should wisely employ teaching strategies to increase students' engagement with deep and self-directed learning strategies, and to avoid using surface learning strategies in the medical humanities course in order to achieve better learning outcomes.

Original languageEnglish
Article number410
JournalBMC Medical Education
Volume19
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019 Nov 8

Keywords

  • Approaches to learning
  • Conceptions of learning
  • Medical humanities
  • Strategies to learning

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education

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