Analysis on the relationship between general self-efficacy and life-long learning orientation in medical students / 中华医学教育探索杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To analyze the relationship between general gelf-efficacy and life-long learn-ing orientation in medical students of a university for providing scientific evidence for the improvement of their life-long learning orientation. Methods In March 2015, all the fifth grade medical students, altogether 822, were invited to participate in the survey and 748 questionnaires were collected effectively. The instru-ments employed were General Self-efficacy Scale (GSES) and Jefferson Scale of Physician Life-Long Learning Student Version in Chinese (JSPLL-S). The relationship was analyzed by using multiple linear regression. Results The general self-efficacy and life-long learning orientation in medical students had significantly positive correlation (β=0.53,P=0.00). Furthermore the general self-efficacy was significantly correlated with each sub-domain of life-long learning orientation, specifically attention to learning opportunity (β=0.53,P=0.00), technical skills in information seeking (β=0.47,P=0.00) and learning beliefs and motivation (β=0.31, P=0.00) respectively. The results also indicated that the magnitude and significance of these corre-lations were independent from the individual characteristics. Conclusion Medical students' general self-efficacy greatly affects their life-long learning orientation. Thus, the strategy aiming at improving students' general self-efficacy could be affective for the development of life-long learning orientation.