Learning approaches towards examination: comparing distant and close timing

Learning approaches of medical students have been much examined. However, there is comparatively very little that is known about the learning approaches of students in other health care professions. The aim of this study is to understand the learning approaches of a cohort of occupational therapy students, when faced with an approaching essay-type examination. A longitudinal study was conducted on a group of undergraduate students (n=29). The Coles Entwistle Learning Inventory was used to measure their learning approaches at two different times, 1-2 months (?distant?) and 1 week (?near?) to an essay examination. The desirable learning approaches reduce detrimentally at close/near timing to the examination. There was a consistent decrease in scores from ?distant? to ?close? timing for all the scales. The correlation coefficient for the desirable learning approaches are; Meaning (r=0.79 p=0.049), Comprehension (0.61 p=0.011), Elaboration (r=0.74 p=