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Configurations of collaborations based on learning orientations amongst medical students
Han, Feifei Ellis, Robert A.
Han, Feifei
Ellis, Robert A.
Author
Abstract
While collaboration is an important and key attribute for medical students in order to prepare them to perform well in health care teams, how to effectively develop and assess such skills is challenging. The current widespread practice of using Likert-scale questionnaire only to measure the quantity of collaboration at course and/or program level appears to be insufficient to provide an evidence-base for what counts desirable collaborative learning experience. Drawing on research into student approaches to learning and social network analysis, this study investigates differences in collaborative learning configurations amongst 217 Australian medical students. Based on students’ learning orientations (i.e., ‘understanding’ and ‘reproducing’) and their choice of collaborations (i.e., whether to collaborate or not, with whom to collaborate, and mode of collaboration), the analyses found five configurations of collaborations differing in a number of features. The most desirable collaborative experience was a configuration of collaborations formed by students with an ‘understanding’ orientation. This configuration revealed a strong tendency towards intensive pair work with measurable differences in how easy and effectively they collaborated. The results of the study not only have practical implications for teaching and curriculum design for collaborative learning, but also have significant implications for assessing students’ collaborative learning experiences.
Keywords
student approaches to learning research, learning orientations, social network analysis, configurations of collaboration, medical students
Date
2021
Type
Journal article
Journal
Advances in Health Sciences Education
Book
Volume
26
Issue
Page Range
581-598
Article Number
ACU Department
Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education (ILSTE)
Faculty of Education and Arts
Faculty of Education and Arts
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
All rights reserved
File Access
Controlled