Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences

Abstract

A study based on diaries written by 82 students at Roskilde University (Simonsen & Ulriksen, 1998) concluded that the attitudes regarding choice of education and educational activities of the "modern Danish student" are characterized by 1) an orientation towards the individualized and personal aspects, 2) an internally motivated and existential "personal growth" orientation, 3) a process - rather than result-oriented attitude towards educational activities, 4) a short-term "here- and now" motivation, and 5) an ambivalent attitude towards who is responsible for the result of the learning activities - the teachers or student him- or her-self. This study attempts to test whether the conclusions concerning the "Modern Danish student" can be generalized to other student populations. Based on theoretical conclusions and statements cited by Simonsen and Ulriksen, a questionnaire was constructed. Factor analyses revealed a number of internally consistent and theoretically relevant dimensions. 686 students from four different faculties at the University of Aarhus then completed the questionnaire. The results confirmed that the attitudes of philosophy students corresponded to those described by Simonsen and Ulriksen (91% correspondence). Students from other faculties, however, differed in their attitudes from the ones reported by Simonsen and Ulriksen. For example, the attitudes of medical students only showed a 45% correspondence. Their attitudes were found to be more long-term career-oriented than short-term motivated, more pragmatically oriented than personal-growth motivated, and more motivated by external than internal factors. While the conclusions of Simonsen and Ulriksen perhaps can be generalized to students from humanistic faculties, they do not seem to be representative of students from other faculties