- Title
- The medical school learning environment and its effects on the students’ choices in learning: formal, informal and hidden curriculum in action
- Creator
- Leopardi, Eleonora
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Introduction: Hidden and informal curricula are known to significantly influence medical students’ professional and moral development. Only a few researchers have examined how they influence students’ perspectives and behaviours towards learning. Moreover, research on the hidden and the informal curricula has neglected to consider systemic and institutional sources of influence. This study aimed to determine the distinct influences of formal, informal and hidden curricula on medical students’ learning strategies, and to identify broader geopolitical factors that shape medical school environments. Methodology and Methods: This ethnography compared the learning environments of two Australian medical schools that partner to deliver a Joint Medical Program. The program consists of a single formal curriculum delivered in two different institutions. A range of qualitative research methods (observation, interviews, focus groups, and document analysis) were employed to identify students’ learning strategies and investigate their relationships with the formal, informal and hidden curricula in the two learning environments, during 14 months of fieldwork. Findings: Through inductive and deductive thematic analysis of the data, eight learning strategies were identified, each of which was determined by local influences, originating within the hidden and the informal curriculum, and conveyed by the learning environment of the medical school. Additionally, instances of dynamic interplay among the other-than-formal curricula emerged from the data, leading to the generation of a multi-dimensional model for the medical school learning environment. Finally, the effects of the geographical and sociopolitical context on the medical school learning environment are presented. Conclusion: Ethnographic methods enabled detailed analysis of different curricular influences and clarification of how the formal, informal and hidden curricula manifest and interrelate. This ethnography shows that the learning environment, and the curricula operating in it, have an effect on students’ learning behaviours, with potentially significant consequences for the development of lifelong learning skills.
- Subject
- hidden curriculum; health professions education; medical school; medical education; learning environment; curriculum; learning strategies
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1427521
- Identifier
- uon:38543
- Rights
- Copyright 2021 Eleonora Leopardi
- Language
- eng
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