Dissonant study orchestrations of high-achieving university students

Abstract

This study focuses on the dissonant study orchestrations of high-achieving university students. Advanced psychology students’ dissonant study orchestrations were compared with previous findings of advanced medical students orchestrations. Further, the relation of study orchestrations to study success was examined. The subjects were 28 advanced psychology students at the University of Helsinki, Department of Psychology who returned a task booklet of learning; of these, 24 students completed a questionnaire concentrating on the students’ interests, expectations and evaluation of the curriculum. All students were high achievers who had gone through a demanding selection process. The subjects completed three questionnaires concentrating on their study practices, conceptions of knowledge, expectations, and evaluation of the instruction in the Department of Psychology. The results showed that seven out of 28 students expressed a dissonant study orchestration. The results further showed that students’ individual study orchestrations were not related to study success. A comparison between advanced medical and psychology students showed that although the profiles of dissonant study orchestrations were technically similar among medical and psychology students, content analyses revealed that reasons for the development of dissonant study orchestrations were different.