Making more of it! Medical Students’ motives for voluntarily keeping an extended portfolio

Abstract

Background: Although medical students’ use of portfolios has been studied from many angles, little is known about their motivations.

Aim: This article explores medical students’ motives for voluntarily compiling a learning portfolio that widely exceeded the assignments.

Methods: Content analysis was performed on 22 (8%; n = 22/269) extensive portfolios, followed by a semi-structured interview with 11 medical students. Building on the theoretical work of Simons et al. (), interpretative analysis was used to reconstruct and understand the medical students’ motives for the effort they put into the portfolios.

Results: Compiling an elaborate portfolio is mainly instigated by a personal instrumentality (internally regulated instrumental motivation). These medical students reflected on what they considered important and useful. The portfolio was a tool to achieve self-set goals, yet the specific goals turned out to be very different among the students, reflecting their particular needs and experiences during clerkship.

Conclusion: Motivation theory shows that students who are internally regulated use more deep-level learning strategies and perform better. Internally regulated motivation mainly occurs when students use the portfolio to achieve their self-set goals. The formal portfolio assignments, enforced by the medical school, were more related with externally regulated motivation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ann Deketelaere

DRS ANN DEKETELAERE is an educationalist and researcher at the Centre for Medical Education of the Faculty of Medicine, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.

Geert Kelchtermans

PROF. DR. GEERT KELCHTERMANS is chair of the Center for Educational Policy and Innovation at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.

Nathalie Druine

DR NATHALIE DRUINE is educationalist and head of the Centre for Medical Education of the Faculty of Medicine, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.

Evelyn Vandermeersch

DRS EVELYN VANDERMEERSCH worked at the time of this study as a junior researcher at the clerkship administration of the Faculty of Medicine, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.

Elke Struyf

PROF. DR. ELKE STRUYF is an educationalist and a previous head of the Centre for Medical Education of the Faculty of Medicine, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.

Paul de Leyn

PROF. DR. PAUL DE LEYN is a thoracic surgeon and coordinator of the clerkship of the Faculty of Medicine, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.