Page 113 - Medical students’ self-regulated learning in clinical contexts

tant might be the result of a students’ process of developing an iden ty in a clini- cal context. This is coherent with theore cal beliefs that self-regulated learning, and regula on of behavior speci cally, is a consequence of trying to convey a speci c iden ty towards others and that students may experiment with possible alterna ve iden es.6 Our ndings might therefore provide an addi onal perspec ve to recent postula ons that the development of a professional iden ty should be a principal goal of medical educa on.30
The main strength of our study is that the set of statements used was dis lled from actual interviews with medical students, facilita ng recogni on by par cipants. The set was also structured and selected using an overarching theory on SRL, decreasing the chance of missing important aspects of SRL behavior. In light of the importance of the interac on between individual and context, another main strength of our study is having data from students from 11 di erent clerkships and in various stages of the clerkships, recruited from various hospitals and community se ngs. This greatly increased the chance of nding all relevant SRL behavior pa erns present. The total variance explained by the ve factors is 43%, which is considered to be a sound factor solu on in a Q-methodology study.20, page 105
Based on our study we can say that at least ve di erent pa erns in SRL behavior are described by students who are learning in a clinical context. However, we are aware that curriculum pedagogy can in uence students’ SRL.31,32 It is therefore possible that other pa erns, or a shi in pa erns’ features, can be found when studying students from other medical schools. The online data collec on procedure has limited the extent to which we gained a deep insight into the pa erns. Using an in-person pro- cedure might have helped understand what en ces students to engage in a certain behavior pa ern and to be er understand what characteris cs of individual and con- text have an e ect on SRL behavior. The individual in uence that various contextual factors, such as societal and cultural factors, and personal factors, such as individual experiences, have on SRL behavior pa erns remain unknown.
Nonetheless, what is evident form our results is that students have di erent pat- terns in their SRL behavior. Students describing these di erent behavior pa erns are likely to require di erent forms of support to assist them in their self-regulated learning. Program directors and clinical supervisors may try to foster this by apply- ing a more individual approach to supervision. For example, students who with an engaged SRL behavior pa ern may be supported by allowing them rela ve high au- tonomy in clerkships.14 Students with a cri cally opportunis c SRL behavior pa ern
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Chapter 5 Pa erns in clinical students’ self-regulated learning behavior: a Q-methodology study