Biomedical subjects

Michael Prosser

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Prosser.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Approaches to Teaching Inventory.

BACKGROUND: The Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI) was developed to explore the relationship between students' approaches to learning, and teachers' approaches to teaching, in the physical sciences in higher education. It is increasingly being used in other contexts. AIM: To analyse the factor structure of the ATI. METHOD: Confirmatory factor analysis. SAMPLE: Inventory responses from over 1,000 university teachers, from 4 different countries and a wide range of disciplines, experience, and teaching level (year of students' study) were used as the sample. RESULTS: Cronbach's alpha values of the 2-scale inventory were acceptable for scale reliability, but not for the 4-scale structure. A good fit to the intended 2-factor structure was obtained by confirmatory factor analysis. Both Information transmission/teacher-focused and conceptual change/student-focused scales had well identified intention and strategy subscales. CONCLUSION: The ATI has been developed as a relational indicator of 2 dimensions of approaches to teaching. It is not intended for use in gathering a full, rich self-report of teaching, or in non-relational contexts. However, it has now been used in a number of different contexts, including different subject areas and cultures. There is evidence in this paper that in those contexts its factor structure is, in the main, consistent with the original design. This analysis also suggests ways that the ATI could be improved.

Factor Analysis, Statistical↗

PubMed2005

Differences in students' perceptions of learning compulsory foundation biochemistry in the health sciences professions.

Student approaches to learning vary from surface approaches to meaningful, deep learning practices. Differences in approach may be related to students' conceptions of the subject, perceptions of the learning environment, prior study experiences and performance on assessment. This study aims to explore entering students' conceptions of the unit they are about to study and how they intend to approach their studies. It involved a survey of 203 (of 250) first year students in a cross disciplinary unit in the Faculty of Health Sciences. They were asked to complete an open-ended response survey, including questions on what they thought they needed to do to learn biochemistry and what they thought the study of biochemistry was about. A phenomenographic methodology was used to identify categories of description for the questions. The paper will describe the categories in detail, the structural relationship between the categories and the distribution of responses within categories. The study reports a relationship between conception of the topic and approaches to learning. Students with more complex and coherent conceptions of the topic report that they were more likely to adopt deeper approaches to study than those with more fragmented conceptions. However, compared to previous studies, a surprisingly high proportion of students with more cohesive conceptions still intended to adopt more surface approaches. This may reflect the particular context of their learning, namely in a compulsory unit involving material for which most students have minimal background and difficulty seeing its relevance. Implications for teaching such foundation material are discussed.

Attitude↗

PubMed2004

A student learning perspective on teaching and learning, with implications for problem-based learning.

Over the last 20 years or so, there has been a substantial development in our understanding of how and what university students learn in their courses (here meaning a component of a programme) and programmes of study. This research has shown that rather than there being a direct connection between the way teachers teach and design their courses, and the quality of their students' learning outcomes, the relationship is indirect. The way students perceive and understand their learning context and the way they approach their learning in relationship to these perceptions have been found to be major intervening factors between teachers' teaching and students' learning outcomes. Their perceptions are, in turn, constituted in relation to their prior experiences of teaching and learning and what is designed for them to learn. In this paper, some of the key findings of this research and how it can be related to a problem-based learning (PBL) perspective in higher education are outlined. In particular, it is argued that the variation in students' perceptions and understanding of what PBL is about is fundamental to the way they approach their studies and to their learning outcomes.

Comprehension↗

PubMed1998

Problem-Based Learning (PBL): Conceptions and Approaches of Undergraduate Students of Nursing.

Objective: A study aimed at exploring the variation in conceptions of problem-based learning (PBL) held by undergraduate nursing students and their approaches to study in PBL in a pre-registration Bachelor of Nursing Course.Method: Students were asked to respond to four open ended questions which focussed on their experience of PBL in a particular subject. Data were analysed in two phases using a modified phenomenographic analysis. In the first phase a set of categories of description were developed from the student responses. In the second phase the individual responses were classified in terms of the categories. The paper will describe the approach to the analysis, the categories identified, the relationship between the categories and discuss the implications for further research and teaching.Results: The findings indicated that there was a substantial variation in the conceptions and approaches. The majority of students, however, held relatively unsophisticated conceptions of problem based learning which were related to relatively unsophisticated approaches to learning.Conclusion: Students participating in their first PBL subject generally reported unsophisticated conceptions of and approaches to learning which were not linked to professional practice outcomes. However, those completing the last PBL subject had recognised the link between participation in the process and the development of knowledge and skills for professional practice.

Journal Article↗