Abstract
M.Tech. (Education)
Students of human anatomy at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), seem unable to
appreciate the relevance of human anatomy as a basic science and the role it will play in their future clinical practice. They complain about the 'massive volume' of learning material, the need to memorise copious amounts of factual information, the insufficient time allocation for the learning content, and the difficulty of the subject. These complaints led the teachers to take corrective measures, however with limited success. It was therefore decided to undertake this study to investigate the learning approaches students adopt and the possible influence that learner motivation and teaching approaches may have on them, as it seemed that the learners' lack of appreciation may be related to the way they approach their studying of anatomy.
The main research question that directed the study was "What is/are the possible
relationship(s) between student motivation, teaching approaches and learning approaches of the second-year Anatomy Chiropractic and Homoeopathy students and teachers?" In answering the research question my objectives were to explore the students' and teachers' perceptions about their learning and teaching respectively.
In order to reach the objectives, a qualitative research approach was adopted for the study as I wanted to explore the lived experiences of participants and gain information rich data of the naturally occurring situation. I purposively chose seven learners and three teachers as the sample to be interviewed. Data was collected by individual interviews about the views students and teachers had about their learning approaches and teaching approaches, respectively. In addition, I asked students about their motivation towards their studies.
The data was analysed using qualitative content analysis and was coded and categorised to develop themes from the transcribed interviews. Some of the findings revealed that student learning approaches were informed by memorisation, searching for meaning of learning material, assessment, time, task requirement and workload in Anatomy. A further finding of the study was that students were motivated by ambition, application of knowledge, passing assessments and workload in the Anatomy course. Students were found to be lacking motivation towards their studies. It was further established that the leaching approaches for Anatomy were focused on assisting students and encouraging meaningful learning. Finally, I found that intrinsic motivation led students 10 adopt a deep learning approach while extrinsic motivation led them to surface learning approach when studying Anatomy.