Pharmacy Students' Approaches to Learning in an Australian University

Abstract

Objectives. To investigate how pharmacy students' approaches to learning change over the duration of a bachelor of pharmacy degree program. Methods. Data were obtained from a cross-sectional, repeated measures design, using a validated self-report survey instrument. Areas examined included processing and regulation strategies, motivational preferences for learning, and the relationship between approaches to learning and academic performance.Results. Pharmacy students were strongly vocationally oriented in their studies across all year groups. This approach had a significant relationship to academic performance. Overall, students indicated a preference for external regulation strategies. There was little evidence of maturation in approaches to learning as students progressed through the curriculum. Conclusions. Students' preference for vocationally related strategies can be harnessed to increase both adoption of self-regulation behaviors and motivation for mastery of material. Comparison of our results with other studies indicates that approaches to learning may be influenced more by the learning environment than the discipline of study.

A Learning Patterns Perspective on Student Learning in Higher Education: State of the Art and Moving Forward

“…Vermunt (2005) explained these disciplinary differences in the learning patterns students adopt by a combination of differences in the nature of the discipline, differences in dominant pedagogical practices in the different disciplines, and differences between the students who choose to study particular disciplines. Smith et al (2007) found a strong dominance of application-directed learning among Pharmacy students in Australia for all year groups, a dominance that stayed stable throughout the study. This finding shows similarities with results from Lindblom-Ylänne and Lonka (2000), who found a clear and separate application-directed learning factor among advanced and adult medical students.…”

“…One of these was the already mentioned application-directed learning pattern, which was found mainly among adult students in the Dutch sample. However, clear application-directed learning dimensions have also been reported by Smith et al (2007) among Pharmacy students at an Australian university and by Lindblom-Ylänne and Lonka (2000) among advanced medical students in Finland. Another pattern that showed up in many but not all samples was one combining all conceptions of learning, with almost no loadings from other scales.…”

“…However, some relations may be rather discipline-specific. For example, in their study among Pharmacy students in Australia, Smith et al (2007) found that especially applicationdirected learning had a significant and positive relationship with academic performance. In their study, both meaning-directed learning and reproduction-directed learning showed negative relationships with academic performance.…”

“…Smith et al (2007) studied Pharmacy students' learning patterns at an Australian university in a cross-sectional design. They administered the ILS to students in years 1, 2, 3, and 4 of studies.…”

A Learning and Teaching Resource on Patient Self-Management of Chronic Pain

“…10 An earlier study showed that pharmacy students who are self-reflective in their learning environments and have skills in collaborative learning are best equipped to construct and apply knowledge, rather than simply to accumulate and reproduce it. 11,12 We sought to address the lack of relevant patient self-management curriculum content, multimediafocused students, and the need to ensure knowledge acquisition and construction by developing a patient-focused learning module incorporating online lectures and readings, video-recorded interviews of patient accounts, and classroom-based discussions.…”