Introduction:

The quality of learning of medical students has been a recurring subject of research in recent decades, but there are scarce national studies on it. The learning environment should encourage deep learning, as it is intimately related to meaningful learning. Active learning methods are linked to better quality of learning, since they provide a favorable environment for deep learning.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of learning of students at a medical school that adopts active learning methods for all course years and correlate it to students’ views on educational environment and sociodemographic data.

Method:

This is a cross-sectional descriptive study with 1st to 6th-year medical students from the Federal University of São Carlos. The R-SPQ-2f, DREEM and sociodemographic questionnaires were applied. Descriptive analysis was performed, and frequencies were compared using chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test. Differences between means were evaluated with either Student’s t-test or Mann-Whitney’s test, when comparing only two groups, and with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) or Kruskal-Wallis’ test, when comparing more than two groups. Associations between quantitative variables were verified with either Pearson’s or Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Statistical analysis was performed with IBM SPSS Statistics version 25.0. For significance, p-value<0.05 was adopted.

Result:

226 students were interviewed. The average deep learning score was 33.52 points, and, for superficial learning, 17.42 points. As for how the environment was perceived, the average score was 129.77. The objective variables that showed influence in learning were sex, course start age, previous contact with active learning methods, language study, previous undergraduate training, or post-graduate degree, receiving financial help from family and current course year.

Conclusion:

Active learning methods may stimulate the adoption of deep learning strategies. The evaluation of factors that influence study approaches is complex, involving subjective individual parameters.

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