Beliefs in Personal Control, Styles of Learning and the Prediction of Academic Performance of Student Health Professionals

Abstract

This study looked at the relative contributions of beliefs bl personal control and styles of learning in predicting the academic performance of a group of undergraduate physiotherapy students. Personal control was assessed using the Health Student Self-Efficacy scale and the Academic Locus of Control scale; the Approaches to Learning and Studying questionnaire was used to evaluate styles of learning. End of year examination grades and final degree classification were the chosen measures of academic performance. The findings indicated that a sense of personal control was a significant predictor of both end of year examination results and final degree classification. Overall, the styles of learning measure was not a good predictor of academic performance, although the `Deep' approach to learning subscale was weakly con elated with examination grades and `Strategic' approaches to learning were predictive of final degree classification. It was concluded that beliefs in personal control may mediate approaches to learning and thus influence academic performance; it was also argued that PBL approaches in the curriculum would be mol-e likely to develop a sense of personal control. Further work: will look at how positive changes in personal control beliefs and learning styles may be facilitated by PBL approaches.