Motivation of Medical Students to Study Sciences

Abstract

Natural sciences and their applications (medical biophysics, medical chemistry and medical biology) represent an inevitable part of medical curriculum. They are often negatively evaluated and a lack of motivation to their study is observed. The attitudes of medical students towards natural sciences are influenced by their negative experiences from the previous study. Nevertheless, knowledge from the natural sciences represents the necessary basis for better understanding of the basic principles of the medical diagnostic and therapeutic methods. Therefore, the indispensable role of natural science teachers is to achieve positive attitudes and motivate students to study them. Our research project is focused on the identification and subsequent application of motivating approaches in natural sciences teaching. Pedagogical investigation using anonymous questionnaires was done with the aim to specify respondents’ (first year students of Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Medicine) motivation and attitudes towards teaching and learning natural sciences before starting medicine study and after the first semester of medicine study. Keywords: University medical education, student’s motivation, natural sciences.