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Multimodal Protocol for Assessing Metacognition and Self-Regulation in Adults with Learning Difficulties
Published on: September 27, 2020
The struggling student: a thematic analysis from the self-regulated learning perspective
Rakesh Patel1, Carolyn Tarrant, Sheila Bonas
1Department of Medical and Social Care Education, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
Students with poor self-regulated learning (SRL) struggle to overcome assessment failures due to maladaptive coping strategies and barriers to seeking support. This hinders their academic success and perpetuates a cycle of failure.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Educational Psychology
Background:
- Self-regulated learning (SRL) is crucial for academic success.
- Deficits in SRL are linked to academic struggles and poor performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore how poor self-regulated learning (SRL) impacts students' response to assessment failure.
- To identify factors preventing students from overcoming failure and inform remediation strategies.
Main Methods:
- Semi-structured interviews with 55 medical students who failed a re-sit assessment.
- Thematic analysis to identify SRL-related barriers to overcoming failure.
Main Results:
- Struggling students failed to utilize key SRL processes, leading to poor learning strategy choices.
- Maladaptive coping strategies and external attribution of failure prevented help-seeking.
- Students normalized failure, creating barriers to accessing formal and informal support.
Conclusions:
- Poor SRL contributes to a cycle of failure in medical students.
- Medical schools should foster a culture supporting help-seeking and SRL development.
- Improved remediation is needed for struggling students to break the cycle of failure.
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