The ‘What we know’ theories are going to be published here as a series of blog posts over the coming weeks but are also available now collected as a free eBook from the OCSLD shop, where there are now four titles available. Our new book, Assessment Literacy: The Foundation for Improving Student Learning is available in paperback and kindle formats.
Students learn by intention, which is affected by context
What do we know?
Students may adopt different approaches to their learning dependent on their intentions – what outcomes do they want from their learning. The literature identifies three different possible approaches:
1. Surface or reproducing approach to learning – the student does not seek to understand, merely to do what is required by the course to pass, which often includes a tendency to rely on memorisation.
2. Deep or meaning approach to learning – the student seeks to relate and reinterpret knowledge, with a desire to understand.
3. Achieving or strategic approach to learning – the student’s primary desire is to excel and achieve top grades, which may or may not involve increasing their understanding depending on the nature and validity of the assessment tasks on the course.
A key aspect of this theory is that these approaches are not the same as abilities and the same student may choose to adopt different approaches on different courses, and in different contexts. Some of the reasons a student might adopt a surface approach may be personal – e.g. other pressures on their time, disinterest in the subject being studied – and might include lack of prerequisite knowledge. A strong influence on the approach taken is the context and nature of the course itself.
Implications for improving student learning
In some cases, whatever the teacher does may be insufficient to prevent a student from choosing to take a surface approach to their learning because of the pressures from their personal context. The student’s beliefs about, and conceptions of, learning and teaching, and their stage of cognitive development (see above) may also strongly affect the approach taken. However, the evidence is that there are certain course characteristics that are more likely to encourage students to take a surface or strategic approach, and others that are more likely to encourage a deep approach.
More students are increasingly likely to take a surface approach the more the following characteristics apply to a course:
● An over heavy workload
● Relatively high class contact hours
● An excessive amount of course material
(the combination of these first three making it increasingly impossible for the student to find enough time for reflection and assimilation)
● A lack of opportunity to pursue subjects in depth
● A lack of choice over subjects and a lack of choice over the method of study
(the combination of these two making it less likely that the student is going to be interested or motivated)
● An over threatening and anxiety provoking assessment system
While the following characteristics are more likely to encourage more of the students to take a deep approach:
● The engendering of intrinsic motivation in the students; students wanting and needing to know
● Learner activity
● Interaction with others
● A well structured knowledge base – i.e. where content is taught in integrated wholes and where knowledge is required to be related to other knowledge
Further reading
Marton, F., Hounsell, D. and Entwistle, N. (Eds.) (1984) The Experience of Learning, Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press
(Especially Chapter 3: Marton, F. and Säljö, R. Approaches to Learning)
2nd Edition (1997) available at: http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/institute-academic-development/learning-teaching/staff/advice/researching/publications/experience-of-learning)