ArticleThe clinical teacher2025
Flexible or Concrete: Goal-Setting Behaviours in Canadian Medical Students.
Article in The clinical teacher, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Flexible or Concrete: Goal-Setting Behaviours in Canadian Medical Students.The clinical teacher · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeActive goal setting and metacognition are components of self-regulated learning, helping medical students thrive in high-pressure environments. To support self-regulated learning and well-being, we must better understand the types of goals medical students set, how they formulate goals, their metacognitive awareness of goal setting and how these factors impact well-being. The overarching objective of this study is to explore how medical students develop goal-setting behaviours and abilities. We also characterised their metacognitive ability around goal setting and probed how they felt their behaviours impacted well-being.
methodsIn this qualitative reflexive thematic analysis study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 medical students in all years from 6 Canadian medical schools. The study received ethics approval.
resultsOur analysis revealed three major themes around goal-setting behaviours, student metacognition and implications: (1) Students have limited awareness of their goal-setting process, preferences and the associated consequences. (2) Students' goal-setting tendencies and processes can be described by goal-setting scripts-flexible or concrete. (3) Goal-setting scripts are modified in response to external factors, occasionally leading to approaches that may be incongruent with a student's preferred goal-setting style.
conclusionThis research offers important insight into goal-setting behaviours of medical students. Flexible and concrete goal-setting scripts introduce another framework through which educators and learners alike can examine and reflect upon goal-setting strategies. Implications of the scripts being modified due to external drivers need to be considered to support learners. Students have limited awareness and purposiveness around their goal-setting behaviours.
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Registered trials
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