Page 123 - Medical students’ self-regulated learning in clinical contexts

interpre ng our ndings
By using a variety of mostly qualita ve methodologies in our studies, I gained an understanding of the process of self-regulated learning in a clinical context. SRL is a process in uenced by a complex, unpredictable context, and therefore should be regarded and studied whilst explicitly taking this context into account.1,2 This means that to discuss the overall research ques on “How do medical students self-regulate their learning in a clinical context?” it is also important to understand crucial aspects of a ‘clinical context’. Therefore, I will rst discuss how self-regulated learning works in clinical contexts, and then focus on the e ects di erent factors have in a clinical context.
How does self-regulated learning work in a clinical context?
Clinical contexts have some unique a ributes which makes studying SRL in vivo es- sen al for understanding it. As was shown in chapter 4, students’ SRL is in uenced by many personal, contextual and social a ributes in a complex and intertwined fash- ion. Two students learning in the same clinical context can have very di erent learn- ing experiences. For example, in chapter 4, one student explained how being the sole student on a ward was bene cial and allowed freedom in choosing what learning opportuni es to grasp. Another student felt learning opportuni es were sparse be- cause being the sole student on a ward inhibited her from talking to other students, which she usually did to share emo ons and discuss uncertainty. As a consequence of these di erences in experience, hospital sta was likely to respond di erently to these students, crea ng a complex chain of events and subsequent changes in SRL behavior. Altogether, person and context, including social a ributes of a context such as perceived hierarchical barriers, resulted in four major factors which in uenced the choices students made in their SRL: goals, experienced autonomy, opportuni es and an cipated results. These four major factors also frequently played a prominent role (some mes with some slight altera ons in manifesta on) in the other chapters, valida ng the importance of these four factors. Students chose di erent strategies to self-regulate their learning, on which the four factors men oned above had a sub- stan al in uence. In chapter 5 we were able to iden fy ve dis nct behavioral pat- terns that resulted from SRL in a clinical context: we dis nguished engaged, cri cally opportunis c, uncertain, restrained, and e or ul students. These ndings not only demonstrated that di erent pa erns in SRL behavior exist, but also gave us insight into what students may nd di cult about learning in a clinical context and how their SRL could improve.
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Chapter 6 General Discussion