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Self‐regulated learning processes of medical students during an academic learning task
Author(s) -
Gandomkar Roghayeh,
Mirzazadeh Azim,
Jalili Mohammad,
Yazdani Kamran,
Fata Ladan,
Sandars John
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
medical education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.776
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1365-2923
pISSN - 0308-0110
DOI - 10.1111/medu.12975
Subject(s) - metacognition , psychology , task (project management) , attribution , logistic regression , self regulated learning , descriptive statistics , cognition , mathematics education , social psychology , medicine , statistics , management , neuroscience , economics , mathematics
Objectives This study was designed to identify the self‐regulated learning ( SRL ) processes of medical students during a biomedical science learning task and to examine the associations of the SRL processes with previous performance in biomedical science examinations and subsequent performance on a learning task. Methods A sample of 76 Year 1 medical students were recruited based on their performance in biomedical science examinations and stratified into previous high and low performers. Participants were asked to complete a biomedical science learning task. Participants’ SRL processes were assessed before (self‐efficacy, goal setting and strategic planning), during (metacognitive monitoring) and after (causal attributions and adaptive inferences) their completion of the task using an SRL microanalytic interview. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the means and frequencies of SRL processes. Univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations of SRL processes with previous examination performance and the learning task performance. Results Most participants (from 88.2% to 43.4%) reported task‐specific processes for SRL measures. Students who exhibited higher self‐efficacy (odds ratio [ OR ] 1.44, 95% confidence interval [ CI ] 1.09–1.90) and reported task‐specific processes for metacognitive monitoring ( OR 6.61, 95% CI 1.68–25.93) and causal attributions ( OR 6.75, 95% CI 2.05–22.25) measures were more likely to be high previous performers. Multiple analysis revealed that similar SRL measures were associated with previous performance. The use of task‐specific processes for causal attributions ( OR 23.00, 95% CI 4.57–115.76) and adaptive inferences ( OR 27.00, 95% CI 3.39–214.95) measures were associated with being a high learning task performer. In multiple analysis, only the causal attributions measure was associated with high learning task performance. Conclusions Self‐efficacy, metacognitive monitoring and causal attributions measures were associated positively with previous performance. Causal attributions and adaptive inferences measures were associated positively with learning task performance. These findings may inform remediation interventions in the early years of medical school training.