Educational environment, student approaches to learning and academic achievement in a Thai nursing school

The aim was to examine the relationship among students' approaches to learning, their perceptions of educational environment, and their academic achievement. Two measures, the short version of Approaches to Studying Questionnaire (s-ASQ) and the Medical Education Environment Measure (MEEM), were administered to 256 Thai nursing students at the metropolitan Nursing College in Bangkok. The relationships among the students' approaches to learning scores, their perception of learning environments scores and their scores on measure of academic achievement, using grade point average, were examined. Two learning approaches dimensions, five learning environments dimensions, and items from two measures were also regressed against academic achievement. These Thai nursing students' approaches to learning had higher scores on Reproducing Orientation than Meaning Orientation. The nursing students also perceived their learning environments as relatively satisfactory. The students who scored high on learning environment had higher scores on recommended approaches to learning and achieved higher grade point averages than did their counterparts who scored low on learning environment. The correlations between dimensions of the two measures and academic achievement yielded statistically significant but low correlations. The results indicate the usefulness of using these two instruments as diagnostic measurement tools to enhance learning outcomes in a healthcare professions institution.