Approaches to learning,evaluations of teaching,and preferences for contrasting academic environments

Previous research has demonstrated that the academic environments provided by departments in higher education have direct effects on students' approaches to studying. But other studies have indicated that these effects are mediated by the students' own perceptions of those environments. Here two studies are reported which explore the relationships between approaches to learning, or study orientations, and perceptions of the academic environment. Those perceptions are measured in two distinct ways, one which minimises the effects of differential perceptions, and one which highlights them. Factor analyses of the responses of three groups of students taking engineering and psychology are used to clarify the nature of the relationships between study orientations and perceptions of the academic environment. It is found, as in earlier studies, that there are relationships which associate deep approaches with perceptions of relevance, and surface approaches with a heavy workload. But here it is also shown that students with contrasting study orientations are likely to define effective teaching in ways which reflect those orientations. Implications both for the design of feedback questionnaires and for the improvement of teaching and learning in higher education are discussed.     

A Cross–Cultural Environmental Education Model

Abstract

This study assessed the level of scientific and natural resource knowledge that fourth-, eighth-, and eleventh-grade students in Maine possess concerning acidic deposition. A representative sample of public school students (N = 175) was interviewed on twelve concept principles considered critical to a full understanding of the acidic deposition problem. These included geological, meteorological, ecological, political, and economic concepts. Student knowledge was rated for each concept principle on a scale of complete, high partial, low partial, or no understanding. Common misconceptions were also noted. Generalized correct concept statements of current student knowledge are reported, as well as generalized missing concepts. Our conclusions have implications for teaching about acidic deposition and the design of environmental education curriculum materials based upon student knowledge. This information can help teachers better instruct students about current environmental problems and thus help learners gain an appreciation for the complex and multidisciplinary nature of science and the environment.     

Literary precocity: An exceptional case among exceptional cases

This article presents the case of Geoffrey, a prolific 5‐year‐old writer. It examines his writing and how his intrapersonal factors and propitious environment contribute to his prodigious output. Childhood precocity is presented as an age‐based comparable rather than as an adult‐based predictor, consistent with Jackson's (2000) domain‐specific developmental theory of giftedness. Geoffrey demonstrated highly precocious writing, both in production and in sophistication, and he demonstrated these abilities across a range and variety of content topics. The convergence of contributing influences evident in Geoffrey's life supports a growing literature on the coalescence factor within precocity. This implies that parents and educators have to carefully consider their influences. Suggestions are made concerning how developmental models of giftedness may need to expand to accommodate precocious writers.     

Patterns of response to an approaches to studying inventory across contrasting groups and contexts

The development of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) is reported, which incorporates a revised version of the Approaches to Studying Inventory. This questionnaire was completed by three separate samples; 1284 mainly first-year students from six British universities, 466 first-year students from a Scottish technological university; and 219 students from a ‘historically disadvantaged” South African university. Analyses of these data were designed to explore the patterns of response found in sub-groups which varied in terms of their levels of attainment and contexts. Maximum likelihood analysis of the largest sample confirmed the expected three factors of deep, surface apathetic, and strategic approaches to studying, and almost identical patterns were also found in the other two samples, and in students having contrasting levels of attainment. There were, however, some interesting minor differences in the South African sample. K-means relocation cluster analysis was then carried out on the largest sample and produced clusters with generally coherent patterns of response. However, one persistent low attainment cluster showed unexpected, dissonant patterns of response, combining moderately high scores on the sub-scales of both deep and surface apathetic approaches, associated with low scores on the strategic approach.     

Conceptions and Beliefs About “Good Teaching”: An integration of contrasting research areas

Previous research on conceptions of teaching comes from three distinct areas. The first is based on interviews with students and staff in higher education, the second involves the investigation of the conceptions and beliefs of schoolteachers, while the third derives from more general consideration of the nature of conceptions themselves. The empirical study reported here drew on these differing research areas to distinguish between beliefs and conceptions about good teaching and to explore their possible origins. The data came from student teachers, but the findings contribute to current thinking about conceptions of teaching in higher education. Bringing the empirical findings together with the three areas of previous research enables a more complete concept map to be drawn to summarise what may underlie the notion of “good teaching”.     

Measuring styles of learning and motivation

The theoretical basis, the development and the use of an inventory designed to measure styles of learning and motivation are described. On the basis of previous research, items within the inventory were located on 20 sub-scales. The ten motivation sub-scales were derived from a theory of school motivation which was based on extensive interview and inventory work carried out in Hungary with children, their parents and teachers. The ten scales describing styles of learning were derived from concepts describing learning approaches and styles which emerged from interviews and experimental research with students in British and Swedish higher education. Versions were prepared in both English and Hungarian and given to samples of 614 British and 579 Hungarian pupils aged between 13 and 17 years. A remarkably similar factor structure was obtained in each sample. An analysis of mean scores indicated distinctive differences both between boys and girls, and between British and Hungarian pupils. Cluster analysis was used to investigate the possible existence of styles which combined both approaches to learning and aspects of school motivation. The potentiality of the inventory for use in conjunction with study skills courses is discussed.