| Summary: | Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for a Masters Degree in Technology: Chiropractic, Durban University of Technology, 2010. === Background: The aim of this study was to determine the attitudes of Chiropractic students
towards research at Durban University of Technology (DUT). The Chiropractic profession has
made significant progress with regard to the production of high quality and clinically relevant
research (Newell and Cunliffe, 2003; Hawk et al, 2008) and the continuation of this research
effort will be the responsibility of the graduates that constitute the future profession (Newell
and Cunliffe, 2003). Furthermore Cull, Yudkowsky, Schonfeld, Berkowitz and Pan (2003) state
that the greatest predictor of this is a positive attitude, therefore it is essential to establish the
present attitudes amongst the students.
Method: The study was a quantitative questionnaire based, self administered, attitudinal
survey. The sample group included all the Chiropractic students registered at DUT (n=185).
Results: There was a response rate of 74,59%. The results indicated that on average
students thought that the research subjects and courses taught at DUT were not interesting
and that they did not adequately prepare them to perform research. The majority of the
students felt that the research process was completely vague to them and that they felt
insecure about their knowledge of research methodology. It was evident that students thought
that DUT staff members placed a great emphasis on research and that they were easy to
approach with regards to research. The area of greatest concern was that although students
thought that the student researcher relationship was of great importance, they indicated that it
was difficult to find a supervisor and they also indicated that inadequate supervision had
delayed their research progression. For the most part students thought that research was
important and they enjoyed listening to and reading research. However, only slightly positive
scores were recorded when students were asked if they wanted to do research in the future,
as they felt it was difficult and time consuming.
Conclusion: Many factors were significantly associated with positive attitudes towards
research at DUT and the strongest correlation between scales was between the importance of
research and positive feelings towards research (r=0.713). Most students felt research was
important and that it made them more knowledgeable however, if given the choice they would
study at an institute where research was not mandatory. === Durban University of Technology
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