Associations Between Occupational Therapy Students’ Approaches to Studying and Their Academic Grade Results: A Cross-Sectional and Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract

Students' approaches to studying are generally viewed as essential for their learning outcomes and are often described as being either deep, strategic or surface. However, research on associations between study approaches and academic outcomes among occupational therapy students are rare, as are studies that include cross-cultural comparisons. The objective of this study was to assess the degree to which the deep, strategic, and surface approaches to studying were associated with occupational therapy students' grade point average, in the total sample and when stratified by country, while controlling for age, gender and time spent on independent study. Seven hundred and twelve students from four countries (Australia, Norway, Hong Kong, and Singapore) completed the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students, and sum scores were calculated for the deep, strategic, and surface scales. Linear regression analyses were used to investigate associations between scale scores and grade point average, in the total sample and within each of the four sub-samples. The results showed that in the total sample, and in the Australia and Singapore sub-samples, none of the scales was associated with grade point average. In Hong Kong, lower deep approach scores and higher strategic approach scores were associated with higher grade point average. In Norway, higher strategic approach scores and lower surface approach scores were associated with higher grade point average. The study found that the approaches to studying scales were relevant for understanding academic performance among occupational therapy students in Norway and Hong Kong, but appeared less useful in the Australian and Singapore contexts.

Association Between Learning Approaches and Medical Student Academic Progression During Preclinical Training

“…The studies in other health science fields that have attempted to explore the association between learning approaches and academic performance have done so prospectively using performance on a single examination or student grades at the time of data collection. 13 , 14 Naqvi et al found no significant relationship between learning approaches and academic performance of undergraduate medical students, 15 whereas, Bonsaksen et al reported that approaches to studying predict academic performance. 16 Lack of unequivocal findings on the association between learning approaches and student academic performance requires further exploration to inform refinements in educational strategies.…”

Student characteristics associated with dominant approaches to studying: Comparing a national and an international sample

“…Utilizing an international sample consisting of students from only Australia, Norway, Hong Kong and Singapore may constitute a limitation. However, previous studies have explored and compared occupational therapy students from these countries [70,71], and psychometric properties of the ASSIST instrument have been investigated in a similar international sample [60], revealing that the instrument structure was quite satisfactory across the four country cohorts. The current study did not aspire to provide representative comparisons, but the study aim was to explore the relative importance of student characteristics in a somewhat wider context than simply studying students from a single institution or a single culture.…”

Associations between occupational therapy students’ academic performance and their study approaches and perceptions of the learning environment

“…While ve of the study approach subscales were signi cantly associated with the students' exam grades, not all associations were as predicted from theory [10,16]. Moreover, associations between study approaches and academic performance have been found to vary between countries and cultures [17].…”