Exploring Teacher Behaviors that Support Student Self-regulated Learning in the Clinical Environment

With rapidly evolving clinical practice and medical knowledge, future doctors must be independent lifelong learners. Self-regulated learning (SRL) represents a formalized approach to lifelong learning, involving cycles of planning, learning, assessment, and adjustment. Medical schools can create clinical environments where learners are instructed in SRL and encouraged to routinely practice using it. Clinical educators can provide guidance in SRL by co-regulating learning with students. The purpose of this study is to explore how clinical teachers co-regulate the learning process with students during clinical clerkships.

Data was analyzed from student evaluations of clinical teaching faculty and residents during clinical clerkships for two academic years. Based on Likert scale evaluation scores, the authors identified faculty and residents who supported student SRL. A constructivist qualitative approach was used to explore the open-ended comments (n = 261 comments) written about these teachers to identify strategies for co-regulating learning in the clinical environment.

Results revealed eight behaviors (e.g., supporting student goal-directed learning, offering constructive feedback) and one personal characteristic, being supportive and encouraging, that promote student SRL in the clinical environment. Teacher behaviors identified aligned with three SRL phases: planning, learning, and assessment. No teacher behaviors identified aligned with the adjustment phase of SRL.

The results of this study provide evidence of instructional practices that align with the planning, learning, and assessment SRL phases. As learners co-regulate with others in the clinical environment, additional research is needed to explore instructional interventions to improve the SRL process, particularly in the adjustment phase.