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Do student-defined learning issues increase quality and quantity of individual study?

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Abstract

An experiment was conducted in the context of a problem-based learning course to investigate the influence of a learning-goal-free problem scenario on the quality and quantity of individual study. In half of the tutorial groups, the problem scenario was constructed in such a way that it provided useful learning issues (goal-specified condition), whereas in the other half of the tutorial groups, the problem scenario did not provide learning issues (goal-free condition). It was demonstrated that students in the goal-free condition read more articles, studied longer, and spent more time reporting the studied literature than their peers in the goal-specified condition. These findings suggest that the use of goal-free problems has a positive effect on the students’ individual study and the extensiveness of the tutorial group meeting.

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Acknowledgement

This study was supported by a grant of the Trust fund of the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Higher Education Research Center, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P. O. Box 1738, NL-3000 DR, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Peter P. J. L. Verkoeijen, Remy M. J. P. Rikers & Wilco W. R. te Winkel

  2. Department of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Marianne M. van den Hurk

Authors
  1. Peter P. J. L. Verkoeijen
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  2. Remy M. J. P. Rikers
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  3. Wilco W. R. te Winkel
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  4. Marianne M. van den Hurk
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter P. J. L. Verkoeijen.

Appendix A

Appendix A

  Version 1: Goal-free condition
Full size table
  Version 2: Goal-specified condition
Full size table

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Verkoeijen, P.P.J.L., Rikers, R.M.J.P., Winkel, W.W.R. et al. Do student-defined learning issues increase quality and quantity of individual study?. Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract 11, 337–347 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-006-9013-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-006-9013-7

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