scholarly journals Lithuanian undergraduate students' approaches to learning English for Specific Purposes

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 469-477
Author(s):  
Nijolė Burkšaitienė ◽  
Jolita Šliogerienė

Aim. It has been established by research that the nature of students’ learning is closely related to their approach to learning and to the learning environment in which learning occurs. In higher education environments, students’ approaches to learning have been widely investigated across different fields of study, however, little known research has focused on students’ approaches to learning foreign languages. To contribute to knowledge in this field, the present research aims to establish undergraduate students’ approaches to learning English for Specific purposes (ESP) at a university in Lithuania. Method. The research was conducted with the participation of 111 undergraduate students, majors in 11 different study programmes, who took a mandatory course in ESP. The data were collected from the structured questionnaires; to carry out the research, quantitative methodology was used. Results.  The analysis of students’ engagement in the study activities, their willingness to go beyond the task and their ability to self-regulate their learning revealed that the study participants demonstrated both surface approach and deep approach to learning ESP. Conclusion. The results indicate that to guide the students towards deep approach to learning ESP at the university, their engagement in study activities should be fostered. 

Author(s):  
Nijolė Burkšaitienė ◽  
Jolita Šliogerienė

This study explores undergraduate students’ experience of learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and aims to reveal their views regarding university teachers’ and peers’ feedback provided to them during the course of ESP as well as to establish the students’ views regarding their own learning ESP. The present article reports on the results of a case study from a Lithuanian university. The data were collected from feedback questionnaires of 111 students in 11 study programmes. To analyse the data, quantitative methodology was used. The main conclusion of the present study is that most study participants viewed their own learning ESP at the university as a positive experience, i.e. the students were satisfied with their engagement in learning this study subject and considered that learning was aligned with teaching and assessment. The results of the study also demonstrated that the study participants considered that collaboration and team work fostered meaningful learning, as well as that peer feedback helped them to understand how to improve in learning ESP. It was established that students valued their teachers’ patience and personal engagement and that the teachers’ feedback improved the ways of learning ESP, encouraged them to think and analyse the content of the study material, and helped them to clarify things they did not understand learning on their own. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuf F. Zakariya ◽  
Simon Goodchild ◽  
Kirsten Bjørkestøl ◽  
Hans K. Nilsen

This study was framed within a quantitative research methodology to develop a concise measure of calculus self-efficacy with high psychometric properties. A survey research design was adopted in which 234 engineering and economics students rated their confidence in solving year-one calculus tasks on a 15-item inventory. The results of a series of exploratory factor analyses using minimum rank factor analysis for factor extraction, oblique promin rotation, and parallel analysis for retaining extracted factors revealed a one-factor solution of the model. The final 13-item inventory was unidimensional with all eigenvalues greater than 0.42, an average communality of 0.74, and a 62.55% variance of the items being accounted for by the latent factor, i.e., calculus self-efficacy. The inventory was found to be reliable with an ordinal coefficient alpha of 0.90. Using Spearman’ rank coefficient, a significant positive correlation ρ ( 95 ) =   0.27 ,   p <   0.05 (2-tailed) was found between the deep approach to learning and calculus self-efficacy, and a negative correlation ρ ( 95 ) =   − 0.26 ,   p <   0.05 (2-tailed) was found between the surface approach to learning and calculus self-efficacy. These suggest that students who adopt the deep approach to learning are confident in dealing with calculus exam problems while those who adopt the surface approach to learning are less confident in solving calculus exam problems.


Author(s):  
Suseela Malakolunthu ◽  
Alice Joshua

Purpose – In recent times, quality of graduates and their performance has been questioned. Students’ performance is an indicator of the kind of approach (deep or surface) that is taken. This study investigates the kind of undergraduates take in their learning processes.   Methodology – This quantitative survey used Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F). Sixty-three students participated in the study. Findings – Results showed no significant difference between the types of approach by gender, nationality, year of study, and major. However, the rank ordering of the mean value indicated that almost all the students who participated in the study did not possess a deep approach to learning. The Pearson’s r analysis revealed a weak negative statistical correlation between the deep and surface approaches to learning and weak positive statistical correlation between surface strategy and deep approach. However, a significant relationship between deep strategy and deep approach (r = .903**, p < .01) was found.   Significance – The lack of deep approach to learning among students can be attributed to factors such as the conditions of learning, professional capacity of teachers, and lack of instructional rigor in the program or coursework. It is imperative that emphasis is placed on using deep approaches to learning in the university courses so that deep learning experiences are created for students.


2019 ◽  
pp. 146978741986020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Bunce ◽  
Melanie Bennett

The marketization of higher education and focus on graduate employability and earnings data has raised questions about how students perceive their roles and responsibilities while studying for their degree. Of particular concern is the extent to which students identify themselves as consumers of their higher education, for example, whether they view their degree as a purchasable commodity to improve future earnings. This is because research has found that a stronger consumer identity is related to lower academic performance. This study examined whether this relation could be explained by the impact of a consumer identity on the extent to which students adopt deep, surface or strategic approaches to learning. The hypotheses were that the relation between consumer identity and academic performance would be mediated by approaches to learning, whereby a consumer identity would be related to adopting a more surface approach, a less deep approach and less strategic approach. Undergraduates completed an online questionnaire that assessed the extent to which they identified as a consumer, their approaches to learning and academic performance. The analysis partly supported the hypotheses: a stronger consumer identity was related to a more surface approach to learning. However, a surface approach to learning did not mediate the relation between consumer identity and academic performance. Conversely, a deep approach to learning mediated the relation between consumer identity and academic performance, whereby a stronger consumer identity was related to lower academic performance through its negative impact on a deep approach to learning. There was no relation between consumer identity and strategic approach to learning. Implications of students identifying themselves as consumers of their higher education are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dragan Gasevic ◽  
Jelena Jovanovic ◽  
Abelardo Pardo ◽  
Shane Dawson

The use of analytic methods for extracting learning strategies from trace data has attracted considerable attention in the literature. However, there is a paucity of research examining any association between learning strategies extracted from trace data and responses to well-established self-report instruments and performance scores. This paper focuses on the link between the learning strategies identified in the trace data and student reported approaches to learning. The paper reports on the findings of a study conducted in the scope of an undergraduate engineering course (N=144) that followed a flipped classroom design. The study found that learning strategies extracted from trace data can be interpreted in terms of deep and surface approaches to learning. The detected significant links with self-report measures are with small effect sizes for both the overall deep approach to learning scale and the deep strategy scale. However, there was no observed significance linking the surface approach to learning and surface strategy nor were there significant associations with motivation scales of approaches to learning. The significant effects on academic performance were found, and consistent with the literature that used self-report instruments showing that students who followed a deep approach to learning had a significantly higher performance.


2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Åge Diseth

The relationship between personality, approaches to learning, and academic achievement was investigated. Two different undergraduate student samples, totalling 310 students, participated in the study. Results showed the expected significant correlations between the personality factors of openness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness, on the one hand, and deep, surface, and strategic approaches to learning, on the other. A significant negative correlation between surface approach and achievement was observed in sample 1. In sample 2, achievement was positively correlated with neuroticism, openness, and deep approach, and negatively correlated with agreeableness. Path analysis showed that each approach to learning was predicted by multiple personality traits, and that academic achievement was predicted by approaches to learning. A separate analysis showed that the relationship between openness and achievement was mediated by a deep approach to learning. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 620-632
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ahmad Alkhateeb ◽  
Osamah Abdel Qader Bani Milhem

The study attempted to characterize students’ conceptions of learning and approaches to learning and revealing the correlation between the students’ concepts and approaches to learning. The researchers used qualitative content analysis and a descriptive approach. The study population comprised 90 male and female students of the Faculty of Educational Science in the HU University, Jordan, during the 2019/2020 academic year. The quantitative concepts were dominating among students (87.77%), especially the concept of learning as a knowledge increase (33.33%). On the other hand, the qualitative concepts of learning were low (12.22%), especially on the person change (2.22%). In addition, there was an emergence of a new concept of learning outside the traditional concepts, namely learning as exam preparation. The results showed that the deep approach to learning was low, and the surface approach to learning was high. The results further showed a correlation between the quantitative concepts of learning and the surface approach to learning, as well as a correlation between the qualitative concepts of learning the deep approach to learning. Hence, the general conclusion implies that if teachers are to place learners at the heart of the learning process, they must be aware of the concepts of learning and learning approaches of the students.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 234-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Natoli ◽  
Zi Wei ◽  
Beverley Jackling

Purpose The introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has brought about renewed calls for the learning environment to foster a deep approach to learning by students. Given this, the purpose of this paper is to determine what aspects of the learning environment, as measured by the Course Experiences Questionnaire, created in two semester-long financial accounting classes, influence students’ approaches to learning, as perceived by Chinese accounting students. Design/methodology/approach A logistic regression model based on responses from 497 accounting students across two universities in China is used to address this issue. Findings The findings provide original empirical evidence of the Chinese accounting students’ expectations of deep learning. The main results showed that teaching quality and clear goals and standards were significantly associated with a deep approach to learning. Research limitations/implications As two universities are included in the study, the findings are not necessarily generalisable to all accounting degree courses across China. There are practical implications for the teaching of IFRS in the financial accounting unit in China, and particularly for the two universities. Specifically, instructors need to foster students’ learning environment and inspire an enhanced approach to deep learning by focusing more on communicating their expected academic standards and improving their quality of teaching to reverse the passive approach taken by the vast majority of Chinese accounting students. Originality/value As one of the few studies from a Chinese accounting classroom context with respect to the learning approaches to teaching IFRS, this study will contribute to extend the existing knowledge of the learning environment of Chinese universities.


2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 479-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Montserrat Tesouro Cid ◽  
Dolors Cañabate Ortíz ◽  
Juan Puiggalí Allepuz

Este trabajotiene como objetivos la creación y validación de una traducción al catalán delcuestionario Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST),analizar cuáles son los estilos de aprendizaje adoptados por los estudiantesuniversitarios y la influencia del género y de la modalidad de estudios. Se aplicó el instrumento a 834 estudiantes de la Universidad de Girona. De losresultados obtenidos se desprende que el alumnado encuestado presenta mayoritariamenteun enfoque profundo si bien en el análisis diferencial por género se observaque las mujeres optaron más por un enfoque estratégico mientras que en loshombres predomina el enfoque profundo. Respecto a si la modalidad de estudioinfluye en los estilos de aprendizaje, se observa que los alumnos de Ciencias yTecnología presentan una prevalencia en el enfoque profundo mientras que los deHumanidades y Educación presentan un enfoque más estratégico. The aim of this study is to measure the psychometric properties of a Catalan translation of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST), and to analyse the different learning styles used by university students, considering the influence of gender and type of studies. The instrument was administered to 834 students at the University of Girona. The results showed that most students interviewed had a deep approach to learning, although the analysis by gender showed that females tended to use a more strategic approach, while males used a deep approach predominantly. As to whether the type of studies influenced learning styles, a prevalence of deep approach was found among Science and Technology students, while a more strategic approach was found among Humanities and Education students.


2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanislava Olić Ninković ◽  
Jasna Adamov ◽  
Ljiljana Vojinović Ješić

This research was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between students’ approaches to learning chemistry and their levels of achievement. The sample was comprised of 46 students in the first year of the Faculty of Sciences in Novi Sad (Serbia). The research involved two instruments: a knowledge test and an instrument for assessing the learning approach. The results showed that students have difficulties in understanding the factors that influence the chemical equilibrium, as well as with writing equations of the chemical reaction of salt hydrolysis. Most students use a deep approach to learning chemistry content. The deep approach significantly correlates with student achievement. On the basis of these results, it is concluded that is important to create a climate in the classroom that will encourage a deep approach to the study of chemistry.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document