Attitudes and Interests of Students in Different Disciplines in Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Medical Sciences Branch to Their Field of Study at the Entrance to University
Author(s): Farhad Adhami Moghadam, Sara Afshari Azad, Mohammad Sahebalzamani, Hojjatollah Farahani
Abstract
Having interest and a positive attitude towards field of study is one of the requirements in learning and achieving success. Despite the time, cost and effort in choosing the discipline, a number of students change their field or they will experience failure in the future career. So, this study aimed to determine the attitudes and interests of students of Islamic Azad University of Medical sciences, Tehran to their field of study on arrival at the university. This field descriptive study was performed on 501 freshmen students in various medical and non-medical fields in Islamic Azad University of medical sciences, Tehran Branch, who were selected by stratified random sampling. Data collection tool was a questionnaire including three parts: demographic characteristics and questions on evaluation the attitudes and interests. The average attitudes was (14.78 ±5.27) and the average interest (10.71 ± 3.48) in students. 44.1% of students had positive attitude and 55.9% had a negative attitude. Interest rate in56.7% of students was high and in 43.3% was low. The study showed that increasing education levels is inversely correlated with students' interest rates and attitudes, that is, increasing level of education, the attitude and interest rates will be reduced. The highest rate of attitude and interest based on the educational levels is related to associate degree with a mean rate of337.36 and 351.83, and the lowest ranking of attitude and interest belonged to professional doctorate (general) with an average rating of 124.95 and 138.10, respectively. Other findings showed that a significant correlation exists between the rate of interest and the attitude. The findings indicated that most students entering college had a positive attitude and interest toward their field of study.
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