DISTANCE EDUCATION: AN ANALYSIS OF LEARNING STRATEGIES IN HEALTH EDUCATION

ABSTRACT

This study aims to investigate the use of cognitive, behavioral and self-regulatory learning strategies used by students in refresher and specialization courses in Micro-politics of Health Management and Work, offered in the distance modality to Alagoas state, Brazil. In the data collection, the instrument "Learning Strategies Scale (EEA)" was developed and validated by Zerbini and Abbad (2008). As for the application of the instrument, it was done online using resources from the Google Drive tool for creating and sending the instrument. The data obtained by the application of the instrument were quantitatively analyzed using statistical procedures of descriptive analysis, and non-parametric test was chosen because of the sample size. The results show that the subjects use more frequently the cognitive strategies, followed respectively by behavioral and self-regulatory strategies, the last one presenting a lower incidence. Regarding the specific objectives: a) to relate the learning strategies to the sociodemographic profile of the subject of the research, the results indicate that the selfregulatory strategies present significance in the relation with the variables “married”, “time working in SUS” and “effective employment”; on the other hand, in the cognitive and behavioral strategies, only the “married” variable is identified, indicating that, in general, the condition of being married influences the students to the use in all the learning strategies; b) about the comparison analysis between the factors that integrate EEA, the analyzed data indicate that the students used more frequently the strategies that integrate the factor 5 - elaboration, followed by the factor 6 - search for help in the didactic material, when the strategies that integrate factor 7 - monitoring comprehension are presented with moderate use. Lastly, it is emphasized the importance of the theme and the need for other research that associate the theme with the role of the tutor as an incentive in the development of the learning strategies by the students in the context of the e-Learning, which requires more autonomous learners.

KEYWORDS: Distance Education; Cognitive Psychology, Learning Strategies.