Understanding Student Characteristics in the Development of Active Learning Strategies

Comparison of chronotype and learning motivation in medical university students

BACKGROUND

People differ in their preferred time for intellectual activities. Morningness-eveningness preferences describe the preferred time for performing daily activities and are determined by chronotype. Chronotype reflects circadian preference in humans and is divided into morning, intermediate, and evening types. Learning motivation is a key predictor of student success and may influence learning and study, academic performance, intention to continue medical research, and well-being. Helping students develop learning motivation may improve their educational achievement and health. There are opposing studies regarding chronotype and academic achievement. We hypothesized that chronotype affects the learning motivation of medical school students.

METHODS

We used the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ), and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) for Russian, Polish, Japanese, and Australian students in the first and second years of medical university. A total of 540 medical students answered the questionnaires. The MSLQ contains six subscales: intrinsic goal orientation, extrinsic goal orientation, self-efficacy for learning and performance, control of learning beliefs, task value, and test anxiety.

RESULTS

The rMEQ was used to classify the students into three types, which were morning (26.7%), intermediate (60.5%), or evening chronotypes (12.7%) based on their scores. The learning motivation scores for the intrinsic and extrinsic goal orientations, task value, and self-efficacy were lower in evening chronotypes.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that the evening chronotype had a lower learning motivation than the morning chronotype. Evening-oriented students may need a more flexible schedule, and a shift of the most important courses in the university to the afternoon may help them to attain higher motivation for learning medicine.

Self-Regulated Learning and Learning Outcomes in Undergraduate and Graduate Medical Education: A Meta-Analysis

Self-regulated learning (SRL) plays a pivotal role in medical education. There is a pressing need for a meta-analytical review to comprehensively evaluate the effect sizes of SRL strategies across diverse learning outcomes and levels of medical trainees. A meta-analysis was executed by searching five databases and resulted in 61 studies that met our inclusion criteria. A three-level meta-analysis was performed to examine the association between SRL strategies and various levels of learning outcomes (i.e., affective, cognitive, and behavioral learning outcomes). Moderator analyses were conducted using meta-regression, considering factors such as types of learning outcomes, training levels, SRL subscales, and quality of the studies. The analysis yielded an average effect size of .212, using Pearson's correlation coefficient, demonstrating a positive and significant association between SRL strategies and overall learning outcomes. Although our moderator analyses indicated that SRL subscales and study quality did not significantly influence the relationship between SRL strategies and learning outcomes, SRL strategies had a more pronounced effect on affective outcomes than on test scores, behavioral outcomes, and mental health outcomes. In addition, the association between SRL strategies and learning outcomes were significantly higher among the clerkship phase of undergraduate medical education than the pre-clerkship phase.

Project-Based Learning Adapted as a Physiology Teaching Strategy for the Sophomore Undergraduate Medical Students

Context

Project-based learning (PBL) is a teaching strategy in which students work as a group to identify a problem and discuss ideas for its solution. It is an educational approach to teaching and learning that involves groups of students working together to solve a problem, complete a task, or even create a product based on a project. It places the student at the center of the teaching-learning process and stimulates their engagement to transform learning into knowledge.

Proposal

The aim of the present study was to use an adapted PBL approach as a physiology teaching strategy for sophomore medical students. For this, at the end of the semester, 148 students were organized in groups and were instructed to develop projects on the topics of cardiorespiratory physiology and metabolic physiology. Evaluation was made of the development and presentation of the projects, comparing the grades with those obtained in tests taken individually by the students at the beginning of the semester. The opinions of the students about the strategy were analyzed using a questionnaire answered individually. The results showed that different strategies were developed by the students to present their projects, notably employing question and answer board games, card games, and videos simulating interviews with clinicians. The mean scores for the collaborative group activities were significantly higher than for the tests performed individually by the students. The answers given in the opinion questionnaire indicated that most of the students considered the strategy useful for their learning, since it stimulated research, study, and discussion on the topics studied. Most of the students believed that working as a group was beneficial and that the time allocated for the project development was sufficient.

Conclusion

Therefore, use of the adapted project-based learning as a physiology teaching strategy was viewed positively by the students and improved their performance in learning about cardiorespiratory and metabolic physiology.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-024-02092-y.

Transforming histology students from passive lecture listeners into active lecture learners

Traditional academic lectures have long been criticized as providing a passive learning environment to students. Often, they do not capture the audience's attention, resulting in learners being distracted or bored and thereby reducing their learning efficacy. Consequently, they are being abandoned by many schools and universities as an educational modus or modified into more learner-centered experiences. This descriptive article outlines a strategy of inserting active learning PowerPoint slides into traditional histology lectures. Suggestions and advice for adding or improving existing active learning slides are being offered to readers, who are planning to modify their own lecture presentations. The author's experience of using this formative assessment strategy with different types of histology learners is also discussed.

"I really liked the chance to talk about it": Students' Reflections on the Process of Completing Paper Puzzles, a Novel Active Learning Activity

INTRODUCTION

Research shows active learning is an effective teaching method. However, few qualitative studies explore medical student perceptions of the active learning process. The present study explored what students thought about while completing paper puzzles, an active learning tool used at the University of Utah School of Medicine, to understand what and how medical students think while engaged in active learning.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

To investigate second-year medical students' attitudes toward these active learning exercises, three Zoom-based focused groups were held and recorded throughout the course. Recordings were transcribed and coded using thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Students reported that peer interactions were of high value, and that while some interactions and thought processes were action-oriented, others were more metacognitive. Other benefits of the activity included promotion of learning, provision of structure, and designation of high-yield concepts. Challenges included feelings of confusion, problems with timing or difficulty of the tasks, and low utility without adequate preparation.

DISCUSSION

These findings reflect student-acknowledged pros and cons of active learning described in education literature and add further insight into the thoughts and conversations students have during active learning activities. These include practicing metacognitive skills, triaging information, and learning from peers.

CONCLUSIONS

These data further elucidate student perceptions of active learning activities in medical education. Though focused on a specific activity, the data can help medical educators understand what students appreciate about active learning and what they think about while engaged in such activities.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-022-01682-y.

Exploring the role of learner characteristics in learners' learning environment preferences

Purpose

This study intends to examine whether the reasons learners like or dislike a learning environment can help explain the differences in the characteristics of the learner and whether learner characteristics can influence a learner's preference for a learning environment.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopted an exploratory sequential mixed methods research design. The study first conducted focus groups with university students to uncover their learner characteristics by examining the reasons they liked or disliked a learning environment. This was followed by a questionnaire survey to explore how these learner characteristics influenced learner inclination for a learning environment. The survey data were analysed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (partial least squares structural equation modelling).

Findings

The findings showed that two types of learner characteristics, i.e. online learner characteristics and classroom learner characteristics, significantly affected learner inclination for a learning environment. Analyses also indicated that learner demographics had no major moderating effect between learner characteristics and learner inclination for a learning environment.

Practical implications

The findings can be useful for education institutions, learning designers and academics to design engaging learning activities to better support different learning needs.

Originality/value

This study makes a novel attempt to distinguish learner characteristics based on the reasons learners like or dislike a learning environment and establishes that individual learners' characteristics play a role in influencing their preference for a specific learning environment.