This s tudy compared learning s trategies of firs t and second- year medical s tudents at Michigan State Univers ity. During the second year of the preclinical program, s tudents in the College of Human Medicine experience problem- based learning(PBL)...
This s tudy compared learning s trategies of firs t and second- year medical s tudents at Michigan State Univers ity. During the second year of the preclinical program, s tudents in the College of Human Medicine experience problem- based learning(PBL), while during the firs t year, they attend large lectures . The researcher interviewed 10 s tudents , including 6s tudents whol participated in a pilot s tudy(Lee, Yelon, Doig, & Smith, 1994) exploring the learning s trategies of firs t year medical s tudents . T he researcher also adminis tered the Learning and Study Strategy Inventory(LASSI) to a larger s ample of medical s tudents . Qualitative analys is bas ed on Bogdan and Biklen (1992) and T es ch(1989) was used. Students showed s even common patterns in the way they use learning s trategies in their s econd year as compared to their firs t year: 1) s tudents s tudy text in year 2 rather than lecture notes as in year 1), 2) s tudents s tudy for unders tanding and integration rather than memorization, 3) s tudents increase their careful selection of important ideas to s tudy, 4) s tudents reduce their lecture attendance, 5) s tudents s electively use learning resources , 6) s tudents continue some succes s ful firs t year s trategies , and 7) s tudents are more confident in their choice of learning s trategies . Results of Multivariate Analys is of Variance of LASSI data indicated, although s tudents changed their learning s trategies s ignificantly during their firs t year, they did not change thos e s trategies s ignificantly during their s econd year. T his could mean that s tudents who are entering a different ins tructional context in which a large amount of content mus t be learned in a limited time may need to adapt their learning s trategies more than they needed to change their learning s trategies for a different curriculum in medical s chool. T he results of this res earch were compared with previous s tudies of medical s tudents s tudy approaches . T he results indicate a s trong influence of medical school program des ign on s tudents learning s trategies . Tobetter unders tand medical s tudents learning s trategies , we recommended future research directions.