Deep, Surface, or Both? A Study of Occupational Therapy Students’Learning Concepts

Students’conceptualizationoflearninghasbeenassociatedwiththeirapproachestostudying.However,whether students’learningconceptsareassociatedwiththeirpersonalcharacteristicsisunknown.Aim.Toinvestigatewhether sociodemographic,education-related,andpersonalfactorswereassociatedwiththelearningconceptsofNorwegian occupationaltherapystudents.Methods.Onehundredandforty-ninestudents(meanage23.9years,79.2%women)participated inthestudy.Theemployedself-reportquestionnairesincludedtheApproachesandStudySkillsInventoryforStudents,the RosenbergSelf-EsteemScale,andtheGeneralSelf-EfficacyScale.Differencesbetweenstudentcohortswereanalyzedwithone- wayanalysesofvarianceandχ2tests,whereasfactorsassociatedwiththestudents’learningconceptswereanalyzedwith bivariatecorrelationandlinearregressionmodels.Results.Thestudents’meanscoresonthedeepandsurfacelearningconcept scalesweresimilar.Spendingmoretimeontheindependentstudywasassociatedwithhavinghigherscoresonthe unidimensionallearningconceptmeasure.Conclusions.Thestudents’learningconceptappearstoencompassasurfaceconcept aswellasadeepconceptoflearning,andthetwowaysofconceptualizinglearningwerepositivelyrelatedtoeachother.Over time,amaturedeepconceptmayaddto,ratherthanreplace,abasicsurfaceconceptoflearning.