title: Approaches to learning among occupational therapy undergraduate students: A cross-cultural study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Students may adopt various approaches to academic learning. Occupational therapy students' approaches to study and the impact of cultural context have not been formally investigated to date.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine the approaches to study adopted by undergraduate occupational therapy students from four different cultural settings.
  
  
  METHODS
  712 undergraduate occupational therapy students (n = 376 from Australia, n = 109 from Hong Kong, n = 160 from Norway and n = 67 from Singapore) completed the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST). A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to compare the ASSIST subscales for the students from the four countries.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Post-hoc comparisons using the Tukey HSD test indicated that the mean scores for the strategic approach were significantly different between Australia and the other three countries. The mean scores for the surface approach were significantly different between Australia and Hong Kong, and Hong Kong and Norway. There were no significant differences between the deep approach to studying between Australia, Norway, Singapore and Hong Kong.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Culture and educational context do appear to impact the approaches to study adopted by undergraduate occupational therapy students. Academic and practice educators need to be cognizant of what approaches to studying the students they work with adopt.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Primary Health Care, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences , Monash University , Frankston , Victoria , Australia.
authors.forename: Ted
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: b Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Occupational Therapy Programme , The Hong Kong Polytechnic University , Kowloon , Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Kenneth N K
authors.initials: KNK
authors.lastname: Fong
authors.affiliation: c Department of Occupational Therapy, Prosthetics and Orthotics, Faculty of Health Sciences , Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences , Oslo , Norway.
authors.forename: Tore
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bonsaksen
authors.affiliation: d Occupational Therapy, School of Health Sciences (Allied Health) , Nanyang Polytechnic , Singapore , Singapore.
authors.forename: Tan Hwei
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.affiliation: a Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Primary Health Care, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences , Monash University , Frankston , Victoria , Australia.
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Murdolo
authors.affiliation: b Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Occupational Therapy Programme , The Hong Kong Polytechnic University , Kowloon , Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Pablo Cruz
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.affiliation: d Occupational Therapy, School of Health Sciences (Allied Health) , Nanyang Polytechnic , Singapore , Singapore.
authors.forename: Lim Hua
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Beng
mesh_terms: D001208:Asia; D001315:Australia; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004517:Education, Professional; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D009664:Norway; D009788:Occupational Therapy / Q000193:education*; D013336:Students, Health Occupations
keywords: Culture; education; learning; occupational therapy; students; study