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

Figures & data

Table 1. Age and gender distributions of occupational therapy students in the two countries.

	USA	NORWAY
	n/total (%)	n/total (%)	p
Age
<30 years	140/154 (90.9)	155/167 (92.8)	0.53
30 years or above	14/154 (9.1)	12/167 (7.2)
Gender
Male	15/154 (9.7)	33/167 (19.8)	0.01
Female	139/154 (90.3)	134/167 (80.2)

Note. Statistical test is Chi Square test.

Table 2. The occupational therapy students’ mean ASSIST scale scores in two countries.

	USA	NORWAY
	M (SD) [n]	M (SD) [n]	P	ES
Deep approach	3.58 (0.60) [155]	3.42 (0.58) [162]	0.02	0.27
Strategic approach	3.99 (0.69) [156]	3.29 (0.75) [167]	< 0.001	0.97
Surface approach	2.71 (0.84) [155]	2.80 (0.70) [164]	0.29	−0.12

Note. Statistical test is independent t-test. Effect size (ES) is Cohen’s d.

Table 3. Linear regression analysis examining associations between country and ASSIST scores while adjusting for age and gender.

	Deep approach (n = 314)	Strategic approach (n = 321)	Surface approach (n = 316)
Independent variables	β	β	β
Age	0.08	0.06	−0.03
Gender	−0.02	0.12*	0.11
Country	−0.14*	−0.42***	0.07
Explained variance (adj.)	1.8%*	19.8%***	0.7%

Note. Higher values indicate higher age (versus lower age), female gender (versus male gender), and Norway (versus USA). *p < .05, ***p < .001