Page 55 - Medical students’ self-regulated learning in clinical contexts

Residents played a decisive role in novice students’ SRL because they are the people students spend most of their me with. Residents could facilitate aspects of SRL. Residents in uenced novice students goal se ng through helping students what goals they should be working on, s mulated reac ve on-the-spot learning through the ques ons they asked, and played an important role in aiding self-re ec on because they gave feedback to students and s mulated re ec on by simple ques ons such as: “what did you learn today?”. Novice students explained to use residents’ behaviors and competencies as a standard of reference for self-assessment of their own competencies, indica ng how a major goal of many novice students was to be able to func on as a resident.
Peers were the other group of people who played an important role in many novice students’ SRL. Similar to residents, peers could also facilitate all aspects of SRL. When novice students faced uncertainty in their new role and were unclear of what is expected of them, they o en asked more experienced peers to show them around. Besides a basic introduc on, this gave them some idea of what realis c learning goals may be and the speci c do’s and don’ts of the department. Students experienced a low barrier to ask peers for help, and peers could also trigger reac ve on-the-spot learning by asking each other ques ons. Some high-func oning peers could even serve as role models. Lastly, peers played a similar role as residents in the self-re ec on process of SRL by se ng a standard of reference for self-assessment through social-comparison and by s mula ng re ec on through ques ons. Addi onally to this, peers played a unique role in novice students’ SRL, because they could assist in coping with emo onal reac ons resul ng from experiences in a clinical context. Sharing emo onal experiences with their peers was experienced as an important source of social support. However, some students also reported peers hindering their SRL, because they experienced a feeling of compe on.
Jennifer: “My rst real clerkship was pediatrics, here [at the academic hospital] a peer showed me around a li le,...but not really [...]Even though they are instructed to do so of course, they see you as compe on. They think: if I make a be er impression, I’ll get a higher grade [...] They really throw you into the deep end, and may enjoy not explaining things to you, because they then have the advantage over you of knowing how to do it”.
Novice students also referred to consultants, nurses and pa ents in their Pictor charts to in uence their SRL, but to a lesser extent. Consultants could instruct novice students about the goals they could be working on, although novice students’
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How clinical medical students perceive others to in uence their self-regulated learning
Chapter 3