Browsing by Author "Tikkala, Aiju"

Objective of the study. Medicine and dentistry are some of the oldest professions in the world and in addition to that also very popular study fields in Finland. Previous research has shown that especially interest in the field of study, altruistic motives and job opportunities are the main reasons why students study medicine or dentistry. Most of the previous studies have been concentrating in the quantitative analysis of study motives. In this study, the centercentre of attention is in the study motives which the students have themselves articulated. The study aims to analyse how these motives express students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Studying the quality of study motivation is crucial since especially intrinsic motivation has been showed to lead to the well-being of the students and better study outcomes. Methods. The research material was collected in the faculty of medicine, the University of Helsinki. The research material was collected with an internet based questionnaire as a part of a study module for first year medicine and dentistry students. The study was conducted by analysing the study motives of 149 students using qualitative abductive content analysis. In addition to that quantitative approach was used for comparison of the number of the motives in different categories. Results and conclusions. The students in this study were motivated by interest in the study subject, factors that related to practising as a doctor or dentist, factors that related to have a professional career and previous personal experiences. Most of these motives could be seen to express the intrinsic motivation of the students. When educating future doctors and dentists the emphasis should be on supporting and fostering students’ intrinsic motivation. This can be done by allowing students to satisfy their basic needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. Previous research has shown that for example mentoring, encouraging and constructive feedback and student-centred teaching methods are useful tools for supporting students’ intrinsic motivation.