Students' experiences of learning and approaches to studying

How university students study is an obvious and vital area of research into learning and teaching in higher education generally, and in different subjects in particular, and so it is a focus for our pedagogy group. This work builds on the groundbreaking early research in Scandinavia and the UK that revealed that students’ perceived purpose of their learning profoundly affects the way they study, – their approach to learning (Marton & Saljo 1976). It was found that students adopt learning behaviours and strategies according to their perceived need for the material, the course design and the type of assessments; broadly, they develop activities leading to deep meaningful learning, learning through interest and enjoyment, or they become more examination conscious and undertake their learning to satisfy the examiners to pass the assessment. These findings have stood the test of time and international application (Richardson 2005). This relates to how students experience specific aspects of their programmes, course designs and learning activities – such as the context, workload, assessments and sense of independence (Ramsden 1992). These constructs retain their utility today - informing teachers about how their programmes are experienced by students, and how this experience is affecting how they learn.

Professor Gaynor Sadlo was the first to apply the ASI and the CEQ to one study, during her doctoral research during the 1990’s. This was inspired by her work in occupational science, which focuses on how the meaning of an activity, to any individual, heavily influences how that action is carried out. Thus the research into how students learn marries with research in occupational science. Her doctoral study “The Effects Problem-based and Subject–based Curricula on Occupational Therapy Students’ Learning” discovered a dose effect of problem-based learning, in that students attending the more that fully implemented PBL programmes recorded scores that indicated higher quality learning. 

This research has been extended and applied by the course teams in the School of Health Sciences, with the intention of evaluating student learning within our courses, with the ultimate aim of designing courses that maximize deep approaches to learning, which are more effective long term. In collaboration with Professor John Richardson, Professor of Learning and Assessment at the Open University, who is internationally renown for his work using the Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI) and the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ), via his extensive and seminal publications in the field, our pedagogic group applied his Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory and the Course Experience Questionnaire to all first and second year students in the School of Health Professions in 2005. Recent international pedagogy indicates that Approaches need to be considered at the individual student level, in consideration of their unique perception of the programme and the influences on that perception.