Page 78 - Medical students’ self-regulated learning in clinical contexts

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Personal, contextual and social a ributes
The process of students’ self-regulated learning is the result of many di erent a ributes of in uence pertaining to person, context and social rela onships. These a ributes in uenced the four factors directly rela ng to students’ self-regulated learning, as will be portrayed in the coming paragraphs.
Personal, contextual and social a ributes could both hamper or support self- regulated learning depending on the situa on. Personal a ributes a ec ng self- regulated learning included skills in regulatory mechanisms such as emo on control, metacogni on, a en on focusing and e ort control. Furthermore, beliefs about learning, mo va on, previous experiences and the level of a task perceived had an e ect. A ributes rela ng to self-e cacy such as dealing with pressure, insecurity, percep ons of expecta ons, and knowing one’s own limits and needs, also played a role. Contextual a ributes a ec ng self-regulated learning pertained to: the curriculum, facili es, atmosphere, pa ent-related aspects, available me, the people present, and engagement in the team. Social a ributes a ec ng self- regulated learning pertained to: the familiarity with the other people present in a certain se ng, the type of rela onship with them, the experience and mo va on for teaching of these other people, and whether they created possibili es for the student to self-regulate learning.
Goals
Students perceived many di erent goals they should work towards. This was a ected by personal, contextual and social a ributes such as previous experiences, or the experienced pressure to comply to goals set by the curriculum or a supervisor. Two speci c types of personal goals were iden ed, those were: 1) where they strived to learn something, and 2) where they wanted to look good or avoid looking bad. The external goals were goals aimed either: 1) to help the students learn, or 2) because they were bene cial to the organiza on, such as administra ve tasks.
These perceived goals could then act as regulatory agent and ini ate self-regulated learning, by having students set a speci c goal for themselves, and start to work on achieving that speci c goal. In the following quote Eva explains how having to formulate curricular learning goals in her por olio, and her a ec ve reac on to this a ects her self-regulated learning in the clinic to some degree, but that this is also in uenced by her metacogni ve beliefs and the opportuni es she recognizes.