To investigate medical students’ career choice motivation and its relationship with their academic interest and performance.
We conducted a cross-sectional study in a sample (n=207) of medical students at a private medical school in Korea, stratified by year of medical course. Data about participant demographics, career choice motivation and academic interest were collected using a self-report questionnaire. The item on career choice motivation enquired about the respondents’ main reason for applying for medical school among 8 possible response options, which comprised two components of career choice motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. The participants’ levels of academic interest were measured in a Likert-type question. Participants’ academic interest and Grade Point Averages (GPAs) were compared across the groups of different career motivations along with analyses of their admission scores for baseline comparisons.
A total of 195 students completed the questionnaire (94%response rate). Seventy-four percent, (n=145; the intrinsic group) of the participants chose reasons related to intrinsic motivation, 22% (n=42; the extrinsic group) chose reasons pertaining to extrinsic motivation, and 4% (n = 8) chose other reasons for applying to medical school. The intrinsic group outperformed the extrinsic group in their GPAs, although their prior academic achievements did not differ significantly. The intrinsic group showed significantly higher levels of academic interest and also performed better in the admission interviews.
Our study illustrates differences in medical students’ academic interest and performance across career choice motivations. Further research is warranted to establish the predictive power of medical students’ career choice motivation and academic interest on their academic performance.
The learner’s motivation is a critical component of the learning process and research indicates that it influences his or her learning and performance.
Among several constructs on motivation is the student’s motivation for pursuing a medical career when entering medical school, which is referred to as career choice motivation.
The literature suggests career choice motivation involves intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.
We conducted a cross-sectional study in a sample (n = 207) of medical students at Dongguk University medical school (DUMS), a private medical school in Korea, stratified by year of medical course. All of the students in the basic medical program at DUMS were invited to participate in the study. About one-third of the students were undergraduate-entry, and two-thirds were graduate-entry students. Students of both entry-levels were in the same four-year medical curriculum, in which undergraduate-entry students take a two-year premedical program that precedes the medical program.
Institutional review board (IRB) approval was not requested for the present study, because it was part of the annual survey of students that pertain to their learning outcomes, which fell under the general exemption from our IRB for educational outcomes data. Participation was voluntary and consent was implied with the return of the survey as responses were collected anonymously.
A self-report questionnaire was administered in April, 2014. The questionnaire consisted of 7 items on participant demographics, one item on the respondent’s levels of academic interest, and one item on career choice motivation. The item on career choice motivation was adapted from the instrument, “Career Choice Motivation” by Pagnin et al.
Some response options in the item on career choice motivation were modified from the original version for adaptation to the Korean context. Two response options in the extrinsic motivation component of the original version, “good chance of financial gain”, and “self-employed professional and social prestige”, were merged into one category and named “social prestige and good chance of financial gain”. A new response option, “obtained a very good score in the college entrance exam”, was added into the extrinsic motivation component as it was a frequently selected answer among reasons for entering medical school in previous surveys. An “others” option was also added to solicit responses that were not covered by the given response options, which gives a total of 8 response options.
The item on academic interest was adapted from the instrument developed by Kim et al.
Independent t-test was performed to compare the student’s level of academic interest, academic performance, and admission scores between the two groups. Additionally, distributions of participant backgrounds (i.e., gender, entry-level, undergraduate majors) were compared across groups of different career choice motivations using chi-square test. IBM-SPSS version 20 was used and the significance level was 0.05 for the statistical analysis.
A total of 195 students completed the questionnaire (94% response rate) comprising of 78 (40%) female and 117 (60%) male; 76 (39%) undergraduate-entry and 119 (61%) graduate-entry. Participant ages ranged from 19 to 37 years (M=25.4, SD = 3.58).
For the main reason for applying to medical school, 74% (n=145; the intrinsic group) of the participants chose those related to intrinsic motivation, 22% (n=42; the extrinsic group) chose those pertaining to extrinsic motivation, and 4% (n=8) chose other reasons. The most frequently selected answer was “intellectual curiosity (n=76, 39%)”, followed by “personal illness / illness or death of family members (n =36, 18%)”, and “social prestige and good chance of financial gain (n=27, 14%)”.
There were no differences in the distributions of participants’ career choice motivation across gender (χ
Participants’ admission scores were compared between the two groups to investigate differences in their baseline performance. Admission scores were obtained for graduate-entry students (n=119) only, because such data were not available for undergraduate-entry students. The two groups did not differ in their undergraduate GPAs and Korean medical school entrance exam (Medical Education Eligibility Test: MEET) scores, but interview scores were significantly higher in the intrinsic group (
| Participants | The intrinsic group (Mean± SD) | The extrinsic group (Mean ± SD) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Interest in the study of medicine | 4.03 ± 0.83 | 3.60 ± 0.84 | 2.94 (< 0.01) |
| Medical School GPAs | |||
| Year 1 | 3.13 ± 0.54 | 3.05 ± 0.51 | 0.56 (0.57) |
| Year 2 | 3.27 ± 0.52 | 3.03 ± 0.49 | 2.03 (0.04) |
| Year 3 | 3.51 ± 0.38 | 3.31 ± 0.31 | 1.93 (0.05) |
| Year 4 | 3.64 ± 0.30 | 3.46 ± 0.25 | 1.86 (0.65) |
| Admission scores* | |||
| Undergraduate GPAs | 91.56 ± 3.30 | 91.29 ± 2.91 | 0.96 (0.34) |
| Medical School Entrance Exam (MEET) Scores | 167.32 ± 20.08 | 171.82 ± 24.02 | 0.51 (0.61) |
| Interview scores | 100.76 ± 1.08 | 93.77 11.60 | 3.00 (< 0.01) |
*Admission scores are for graduate-entry students only (n = 119)
Our study investigated the relationship between medical students’ career choice motivation and their academic performance. With the distributions of individual backgrounds (i.e., gender, entry-levels, and ages) and prior academic achievements not being different between students with different career choice motivations, our findings indicate that career choice motivation in medical students may account for differences in their academic performance.
Approximately two-thirds of the students in our study reported they were intrinsically motivated in applying for medical school. This finding is similar to that of the study of Brazilian students by Pagnin et al.
Moreover, we found differences in students’ perceived levels of academic interest between the groups of different career choice motivations. Motivational theories suggest that intrinsic motivation is positively associated with academic performance.
Our study had several limitations. First, this was a preliminary study into career choice motivation using a relatively small sample from one institution. Therefore, future research with a larger sample from multiple institutions is warranted to enhance the generalizability of this study. Second, our study sample is relatively unique in that two different tracks of students – i.e., undergraduates and graduates - are in the same cohorts. Although our study revealed no differences in baseline performance between graduates and undergraduates, past studies suggests there are differences between these two groups in their motivational profiles and learning outcomes.
Our study illustrates differences in medical students’ academic interest and performance across career choice motivations. Our findings suggest that understanding medical students’ career choice motivation may enhance our knowledge of factors that influence medical students’ learning and performance. Such an understanding can shed us light on how to select students who are likely to succeed in medical school and how to better facilitate their learning.
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.