A longitudinal study on self-teaching ability: Changes in self-teaching ability over four years in the faculty of health sciences

In this study, a four-year longitudinal study was conducted on 110 students in the Department of Nursing and 120 students in the Department of Medical Technology to change in the self-teaching abilities of students studying in these departments. This study measured four aspects of self-teaching ability as described by Kajita. "The four measured aspects were as follows: Aspect I: Aspiration for growth and development; Aspect II: Self-motivation and control; Aspect III: Skills and the basis of learning; and Aspect IV: Confidence, pride, and stability." The results show that there were changes in all four aspects as the academic level of the students increased, and in the Departments of Nursing and Medical Technology, self-teaching ability improved in all aspects as students moved from the first year to the second year and from the third year to the fourth year. However, no changes were observed in the transition from the second year to the third year. Earlier literature has reported that self-teaching ability improves because of changes in pedagogical patterns from education that focuses on lectures in the second year to fieldwork in the third year. However, we hypothesize that it took time for the students in this study to adapt to new learning environments because of the variety of environments that exist in laboratory facilities. Furthermore, it was revealed that from the third year to the fourth year, by accumulating fieldwork experience, students practiced health examinations and nursing processes and learned to think about the knowledge and techniques that they had acquired in connection with the fieldwork; in doing so, students were also able to link such acquisitions to research projects and to prepare for national examinations, which resulted in increased self-confidence.