Reflections and Readiness of Medical Students for Self-Directed Learning (SDL): An Observational Cross-Sectional Study

Background/introduction Self-directed learning (SDL) is primarily an active learning technique that promotes higher-order cognitive skills and increases the self-efficacy of students. Through SDL, the onus of learning primarily lies with the students. Medical students need to be lifelong learners, as it is crucial to update their knowledge and apply the same in clinical practice. SDL plays a vital role in inculcating the habit of reading and learning in medical graduates. It also helps in developing all the domains of learning, such as cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. Materials and methods In this observational, questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study, a total of 208 first- and third-year medical students (104 students in each batch) were asked to fill out a pre-validated questionnaire form to record the reflections and readiness of the students regarding SDL in medical education. The participants were asked to select from a Likert scale of "strongly disagree," "disagree," "neutral," "agree," and "strongly agree." An open-ended questionnaire was used to record the views and reflections of students about the concept of SDL in medical education. Results were tabulated on an Excel sheet (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington), and descriptive statistical measures such as means and percentages were used for analysis of the data. Results Approximately 90 (86.53%) of third-year professional students responded positively to SDL readiness, whereas it was approximately 80 (76.92%) among first-year professional students. The majority of students, 198 (95.19%), revealed that the biggest challenges for the successful implementation of active learning through SDL are time constraints and the need for extensive planning and research skills. Conclusions Our study concluded that, overall, the third-year professional students showed higher reported readiness for learning the concepts through SDL in all three domains, such as motivation for learning, planning and implementation, and interpersonal communication skills.