Abstract
Attitude is a ubiquitous term in health professions education (HPE).
Accompanied by knowledge and skills, it rolls off the tongue when
discussing competencies and educational objectives.1,2 As part of
the tripartite structure (KSAs), attitudes generally aim to capture all
the essential personal elements of learning and performance that
are NOT knowledge and skills, including motivation, dispositions,
traits, personal characteristics, perceptions, judgements and emotions.
Unfortunately, the broadness of this conceptualisation limits
the utility of attitudes for specific operational purposes such as curriculum
development, assessment and educational research. We see
value in the construct of attitude and propose a conceptualisation
grounded in literature from social psychology—a
field that studies
people's attitudes as a core subject and that can provide a theoretical
basis for the concept.3
Accompanied by knowledge and skills, it rolls off the tongue when
discussing competencies and educational objectives.1,2 As part of
the tripartite structure (KSAs), attitudes generally aim to capture all
the essential personal elements of learning and performance that
are NOT knowledge and skills, including motivation, dispositions,
traits, personal characteristics, perceptions, judgements and emotions.
Unfortunately, the broadness of this conceptualisation limits
the utility of attitudes for specific operational purposes such as curriculum
development, assessment and educational research. We see
value in the construct of attitude and propose a conceptualisation
grounded in literature from social psychology—a
field that studies
people's attitudes as a core subject and that can provide a theoretical
basis for the concept.3
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | |
| Pages (from-to) | 892-893 |
| Number of pages | 2 |
| Journal | Medical Education |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| Early online date | 20 Feb 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Aug 2021 |