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Comparative Study
. 2018 Jun 7;18(1):128.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-018-1227-x.

Conceptions of learning factors in postgraduate health sciences master students: a comparative study with non-health science students and between genders

Fernando Campos  1 , Miguel Sola  2 , Antonio Santisteban-Espejo  3 , Ariane Ruyffelaert  4 , Antonio Campos-Sánchez  5 , Ingrid Garzón  1 , Víctor Carriel  1 , Juan de Dios Luna-Del-Castillo  6 , Miguel Ángel Martin-Piedra  7   8 , Miguel Alaminos  1
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Comparative Study

Conceptions of learning factors in postgraduate health sciences master students: a comparative study with non-health science students and between genders

Fernando Campos et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: The students' conceptions of learning in postgraduate health science master studies are poorly understood. The aim of this study was to compare the factors influencing conceptions of learning in health sciences and non-health sciences students enrolled in postgraduate master programs in order to obtain information that may be useful for students and for future postgraduate programs.

Methods: A modified version of the Learning Inventory Conception Questionnaire (COLI) was used to compare students' conception learning factors in 131 students at the beginning of their postgraduate studies in health sciences, experimental sciences, arts and humanities and social sciences.

Results: The present study demonstrates that a set of factors may influence conception of learning of health sciences postgraduate students, with learning as gaining information, remembering, using, and understanding information, awareness of duty and social commitment being the most relevant. For these students, learning as a personal change, a process not bound by time or place or even as acquisition of professional competences, are less relevant. According to our results, this profile is not affected by gender differences.

Conclusions: Our results show that the overall conceptions of learning differ among students of health sciences and non-health sciences (experimental sciences, arts and humanities and social sciences) master postgraduate programs. These finding are potentially useful to foster the learning process of HS students, because if they are metacognitively aware of their own conception or learning, they will be much better equipped to self-regulate their learning behavior in a postgraduate master program in health sciences.

Keywords: Conceptions of learning; Health sciences; Postgraduate master students.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Participation of the students was voluntary and consistent with the procedures of the university of Granada research review boards. Students involved in the study took part voluntarily and agreed to the publication of the data in an anonymous form. Informed consent to participate in the study was obtained from participants. The study was approved by the research and ethics committee of the University of Granada (ref. 62/CEIH/2016).

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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