Comparative study of learning skills among students pursuing an education in healthcare

Judit Tanczos+, Troy B.Wiwczaroski٭, Ildiko Tar٭

٭University of Debrecen, Foreign Languages Institute

+University of Debrecen OEC, Institute of Behavioral Science

Abstract

The study discusses the second set of results on the academic competencies of L2 medical students (DEOEC University of Debrecen), who pursued their undergraduate diploma courses in English between 2010 and 2011.  The survey included 503 first and third year Hungarian and foreign students at the Faculty of Dentistry, the Medical Faculty and The Faculty of Public Health and Physiotherapy. 72% of students had various problems in learning, which took their tolls on their study performance and fuelled considerable stress.

Time management proved to be the key problem in all the 4 majors, and the least problematic skill was reading (in 3 majors). With the exception of note taking, females indicated significantly more problems than males: 70:30%. However, significant differences leveled off between the two genders and the rate of problems became roughly equal.

In reflection of our findings we suggest that learning skill development should be enhanced and existing problems should be handled more effectively in university education. Our research findings will be discussed with students to explore the possible reasons and to identify the most efficient methods of intervention and prevention.

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