Medical Students’ General Beliefs about Their Learning

Abstract

Learning in medical school is usually regarded as a very specialized type of learning compared to that of other academic disciplines. Medical students might have general beliefs about their own learning. Beliefs about learning have a critical effect on learning behavior. There are several factors that affect medical students’ learning behavior: epistemological beliefs, learning styles, learning strategies, and learning beliefs. Several studies have addressed epistemological beliefs, learning styles, and learning strategies in medical education. There are, however, few studies that have reported on medical students’ beliefs about learning. The purpose of this study was to determine what learning beliefs medical students have, what the causes of these beliefs are, and how medical educators teach students who have such beliefs. In this study, the five learning beliefs are assumed and we considered how these beliefs can affect students’ learning behaviors. They include: 1) medical students are expected to learn a large amount of information in a short time. 2) memorization is more important than understanding to survive in medical schools. 3) learning is a competition and work is independent, rather than collaborative. 4) reading textbooks is a heavy burden in medical education. 5) the most effective teaching and learning method is the lecture. These learning beliefs might be the results of various hidden curricula, shared experiences of the former and the present students as a group, and personal experience. Some learning beliefs may negatively affect students’ learning. In conclusion, the implications of medical students’ learning beliefs are significant and indicate that students and educators can benefit from opportunities that make students’ beliefs about learning more conscious.