Differences in Approaches to Learning Between Occupational Therapy Students in the USA and Norway

Abstract

Students approach learning in different ways, and this study aimed to examine and understand differences in learning approaches between occupational therapy students in Norway and the USA. A total of 321 students, from two universities in the USA and six higher education institutions in Norway, completed the short version of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students. The data were analyzed with linear regression analyses. U.S. students had substantially higher scores on the strategic approach and higher scores on the deep approach, compared to the Norwegian students. Differences may be due to different national regulations and levels of education required for entering the programs, or personal factors such as predisposition for learning.

Keywords:

• Approaches to learning
• cross-national study
• higher education
• occupational therapy
• students

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the American and the Norwegian students who volunteered to take part in this study. In addition, the authors thank the educational staff who contributed to the data collection.

Statements and declarations

All authors contributed to the study design and data collection. Material preparation, analysis and drafting the manuscript were performed by GM and TB. All authors read and made critical revisions to the manuscript and agreed to be responsible for the content of the final submitted version.

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Defense Health Agency, Brooke army Medical Center, the Department of Defense, nor any agencies under the U.S. Government.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.