Multi-dimensional profiling of medical students' cognitive models about learning

In current constructivist paradigms, learners' previous subject-matter knowledge, or cognitive models, provide the foundations for the construction of new knowledge. Learners' cognitive models about learning also mediate students' capacities to learn in their chosen topics of study. The diverse backgrounds of students entering medicine suggest that they might come to medical studies equipped with a wide variety of cognitive models about learning. Some current theories tend to reduce students' cognitions about learning to parsimonious representations, such as surface-deep approaches or mastery-performance goals. It is possible that such reduced representations underrepresent, or misrepresent, the complexity of students' cognitive models about learning. Good quality teaching needs to take account of learners' cognitive models, not just about subject matter, but also about learning. This study investigated the diversity and complexity of medical students' cognitive models about learning.

A total of 7 graduate entry, clinical-year medical students volunteered for in-depth interviews about learning. NUD*IST text analysis software and correspondence analysis were employed to identify dimensions and to profile students' responses.

The correspondence analysis identified a significant 4-dimensional solution that illustrates the contributions of multiple variables to students' cognitive models about learning. Individual profiles highlight diversity between participants.

This study provides evidence that students' cognitive models about learning are complex and highly differentiated. Representations of what students know about learning need to take account of such complexity in order to inform instructional practice more adequately.