An analysis of the professional and academic interest of medical radiation science students Shane E. Dempsey * , Helen M. Warren-Forward a School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health, Medical Radiation Science, University of Newcastle, Box 16, Hunter Building, Australia article info Article history: Received 14 July 2010 Received in revised form 16 November 2010 Accepted 17 November 2010 Available online 9 December 2010 Keywords: Interest orientated learning Medical radiation science students abstract This research analyses the interest that medical radiation science (MRS) students have about their academic and professional world when they are given the independence to freely choose a topic to research. The research setting includes students of three different MRS degrees who have had, up until the point that this research was carried out, more common learning than degree specific learning. To analyse student interest, a thematic analysis of the self selected topics to be researched for a group work project was undertaken. The results indicate that there are statistically significant differences in interest between students of the three MRS degrees, with students within a degree sharing a strong single unifying common interest in their academic or professional world. Crown Copyright Ó 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The College of Radiographers. All rights reserved. Introduction From 1997 to 2004 students in the second year of the Bachelor of Medical Radiation Science (MRS) degrees at the University of Newcastle completed a 10 week group work conference poster learning and assessment task during semester two (AugusteNo- vember). The task was designed firstly to allow students the experience of working as part of a collaborative group and learn a range of skills that would be useful in real world team based workplace situations, and secondly to allow students to investigate a topic of their own choosing as a way to engage their intellectual curiosity (interest) about their academic and professional world. The group work task was undertaken after students had completed up to 12 weeks of professional placement so that they had sufficient clinical background to investigate an area of professional interest. Interest in an academic program of study plays a significant role in increasing the retention of students in a program and career choice, 1,2 and in recent years Australian universities have investi- gated and implemented projects to decrease attrition rates. 3 In Australia it is estimated that attrition from university programs has a cost of around Aus $1.4bn dollars (£0.84bn, V 1bn) with the rate of attrition of students from programs across a number of Australian universities ranging between 9.7 and 24.2%. 4 The research pertaining to interest orientated learning emerges from the view- point that learning is not a purely cognitive function but also has an affective dimension, where learners become emotionally engaged at a higher level when they are interested in a topic or activity. 5e8 Research indicates that interest orientated or interest based learning is strongly associated with positive learning outcomes including the likelihood of engagement at a deep level of pro- cessing. Interest based or orientated learning is associated with the development of intrinsic motivation to learn, and autonomy or self- determination in learning. 9e11 From 2005 to 2007 the task was moved to semester one as a result of wide spread program changes at the university, and the new program environment meant that students would only complete five weeks of professional placement prior to under- taking the poster task. Academics commented that these changes reduced the quality of the posters submitted, and students com- mented that their limited clinical experience to complete the project did not give them adequate professional understanding or time to engage their interest and work collaboratively with other students to complete a high quality submission. In 2008 the poster project returned to the second semester of the program. Each year up until 2002, students on completing the poster task were asked to respond to a short response questionnaire that sought to analyse the content of their learning within the group work environment. The questionnaires were reviewed each year as a quality assurance teaching process which would provide imme- diate feedback to the lecturing staff about the learning outcomes of the task for the students. Following the changes to the sequencing * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ61 2 49216667; fax: þ61 2 49217053. E-mail addresses: shane.dempsey@newcastle.edu.au (S.E. Dempsey), helen. warren-forward@newcastle.edu.au (H.M. Warren-Forward). a Tel.: þ61 2 49217142; fax: þ61 2 49217053. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Radiography journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/radi 1078-8174/$ e see front matter Crown Copyright Ó 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The College of Radiographers. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.radi.2010.11.005 Radiography 17 (2011) 145e151