scholarly journals Changes in approaches to learning over three years of university undergraduate study

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona McDonald ◽  
John Reynolds ◽  
Ann Bixley ◽  
Rachel Spronken-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Study Skills ◽  
Approaches To Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Strategic Learning ◽  
Anatomy And Physiology ◽  
Undergraduate Study ◽  
Science Degree ◽  
Surface Learning

This study aimed to evaluate and compare approaches to learning by a longitudinal cohort of undergraduate students as they progressed from their first to third years of study in anatomy and physiology. The Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) wascompleted at the beginning and end of their first year of university study, and in their final semester. At first year, a surface learning approach predominated; however, at third year, students showed a significant increase in their use of deep and strategic learning approaches compared to first year, although surface learning approaches were retained. The extent to which third-year students took both strategic and deep approaches to learning was positively correlated with their performance on assessment. As students progress through a three-year science degree, they develop deeper and more strategic learning approaches, and assessment and teaching styles probably promote these approaches to learning.

scholarly journals Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) in an Introductory Course in Chemistry.

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 66-78
Author(s):  
Stephen Brown ◽  
◽  
Sue White ◽  
Lara Wakeling ◽  
Mani Naiker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Learning Style ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Study Skills ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
First Year ◽  
Strategic Learning ◽  
Surface Approach ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Approaches To Study ◽  
Surface Learning

Approaches to study and learning may enhance or undermine educational outcomes, and thus it is important for educators to be knowledgeable about their students’ approaches to study and learning. TheApproaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students(ASSIST) – a 52 item inventory which identifies three learning styles (Deep, Strategic, and Surface), was given to first year undergraduate students undertaking an introductory chemistry course. Completed inventories (n=103, 85% response), included 30 BSc Biomedicine, 15 BSc Food and Nutrition, 22 BSc Geology, 18 BSc Science students, and a further 18 students on unnamed BSc pathways. The dominant learning style adopted was the Surface approach, with a mean score (SD) of 2.94 (0.54). The preference of the surface approach was consistent for all BSc pathways.There was a higher mean score for the strategic learning style in males (n= 59) compared to females (n=44) with no gender-based differences in either the deep or the surface learning styles.A surface approach may not necessarily indicate a lack of interest in chemistry, rather chemistry may be perceived as being peripheral to the students’ interests – this may be a problem when students with a diverse range of career aspirations study common content in large, first year introductory courses. Identifying students that adopt a surface learning style at an early stage in the undergraduate education journey is an important step in effectively targeting educational resources aimed at enhancing students’ learning habits.

scholarly journals Approaches to Learning: Does Medical School Attract Students with the Motivation to Go Deeper?

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 302
Author(s):  
Kylie J. Mansfield ◽  
Gregory E. Peoples ◽  
Lyndal Parker-Newlyn ◽  
Danielle Skropeta
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Goal Orientation ◽  
Approaches To Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Graduate Entry ◽  
Learning Goal ◽  
Learning Goal Orientation ◽  
Graduate Entry Medicine

Graduate-entry, following a science degree, is the preferred pathway into many medical schools, however little is known about how the learning approaches of medical students compare to those of science students. This study compared the learning approaches and achievement orientations of science students with those aiming to enter graduate-entry medicine programs. The two factor study process questionnaire and the achievement goal orientation survey were used to compare students in; stage one: third year science students (n = 86) to graduate-entry medicine students (n = 158); stage two: applicants to graduate medicine (n = 84); stage three: first year science students (n = 363) to first year pre-medicine students (n = 68). Medical students and applicants to medicine demonstrated a greater preference for deep learning than third year science students (p < 0.0001). Pre-medicine students were similar to medical students. Medical students, applicants to medicine and pre-medicine students also all had a greater preference for a learning goal orientation. The preference for a deeper approach to learning and stronger learning goal orientation in students enrolled in medicine or aiming to gain entry to graduate medicine indicates a motivation towards the acquisition of knowledge. Medical educators need to ensure that students continue to develop positive and beneficial styles of learning to assist them to develop into life-long learners.

Peer interaction as mechanism for providing timely and accessible feedback to a large undergraduate class

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-130
Author(s):  
Estelle Trengove
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Peer Interaction ◽  
Large Body ◽  
First Year ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Effective Feedback ◽  
Giving Feedback ◽  
Undergraduate Class

Feedback to students on their work is recognized as crucially important in higher education, but as classes at universities become larger, it is becoming more and more difficult for teachers to give their students effective feedback. There is a large body of work on giving feedback on essays and postgraduate writing, but there is very little on giving feedback to undergraduate students in engineering classes. Feedback has particular value if it facilitates students’ learning. It is therefore not necessary for the teacher to give feedback – feedback from peers is equally valuable if it facilitates learning. This paper explores the comments submitted by students about a peer interaction that was introduced in a first-year engineering class. It investigates whether this intervention could comprise effective feedback by comparing the format of the intervention and the student comments to two models from the literature on feedback. The analysis shows that the intervention was successful in providing feedback that was helpful to students in the sense that it helped to draw them into deeper learning approaches.

The Association Between Prior Knowledge and Learning Approaches, in Performance in an Advanced Accounting Course

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 922-925
Author(s):  
Nor Azah Binti Abdul Jalil ◽  
Hasnah Binti Haron
Keyword(s):  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Study Skills ◽  
Approaches To Learning ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Significant Variable ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Course Performance ◽  
And Performance ◽  
And Gender

Ensuring quality in accounting education is the target by academicians in the field. One of the measures would be students’ performance which would be the benchmark of indicating whether the students are performing accordingly. Based on previous literature, prior knowledge and students’ learning approaches are seen as contributing factors to performance. The purpose of this study is to determine the following: (1) to identify whether the students with prior knowledge perform better in an advanced accounting course, (2) to identify whether learning approaches (deep, surface and strategic) could also contribute to students’ performances and (3) to identify association between gender and performance. A total of 109 students responded to the questionnaires consisting Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) which was used to identify the approaches to learning adopted by IIUM students. The results found that prior knowledge is the only significant variable and there is no association found between learning approaches and gender towards advanced accounting course performance. It implies that more effort should be directed at increasing the students’ comprehension in the prior knowledge which would include increase student centre learning approaches in teaching.

Assessing core manipulative skills in a large, first-year laboratory

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger W. Moni ◽  
Deanne H. Hryciw ◽  
Philip Poronnik ◽  
Lesley J. Lluka ◽  
Karen B. Moni
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Human Movement ◽  
Degree Program ◽  
Digital Data ◽  
First Year ◽  
Degree Programs ◽  
Bachelor Of Science ◽  
Core Skills ◽  
Science Degree ◽  
Undergraduate Programs

Responding to the concern from our faculty that undergraduate students do not have robust laboratory skills, we designed and implemented a strategy to individually teach and assess the manipulative skills of students in first-year laboratories. Five core laboratory skills were selected for the course entitled Human Biology, a large, first-year class of students, most of whom were enrolled in Bachelor of Pharmacy and Human Movement Studies. Here, we report details for the 365 students enrolled primarily in Pharmacy and Human Movement Studies bachelor degree programs in semester 1 of 2006. We designed a specific strategy to assess five core laboratory skills: 1) accurate and precise use of a micropipette, 2) calculation of dilutions and preparation of diluted samples of saline, 3) accurate representation of data using a graph, 4) use of a light microscope, and 5) acquisition of digital data by measuring the latent period for the Achilles reflex. Graduate tutors were trained to teach and assess each student on each skill. The development of competency was tracked for all students across all five skills. Most students demonstrated proficiency on their first attempt. The development of proficiency across the core skills depended on both the skill and degree program. In semester 2 of 2006, 854 students mostly enrolled in the Bachelor of Science degree program and were similarly taught and assessed on the same five core skills. This approach was an effective teaching and assessment strategy that, when applied beyond first year, should increase the level of laboratory skills across undergraduate programs in physiology.

scholarly journals Effects of University Preparation and Engagement on Achievement

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Elizabeth Marie Chinlund
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Study Skills ◽  
School Achievement ◽  
First Year ◽  
University Preparation ◽  
Academic Challenge ◽  
University Degree ◽  
First Year University ◽  
Mainstream Students

<p>This study comprised an investigation of the longitudinal achievement of New Zealand first-year undergraduate students (n=967) who transitioned to their degrees through the Certificate of University Preparation (CUP) programme at Victoria University of Wellington between 2008 and 2012 and the role of preparation and engagement on their achievement. Certain student behaviours, development of study skills, importance of academic challenge, and emphasis on academic support were all correlated with later university achievement. Although engagement is a highly acclaimed concept, its links to achievement were unsubstantiated. Using linear regressions, students' academic perseverance and their achievement in CUP each uniquely predicted first-year university degree programme achievement. CUP students' university achievement was higher than mainstream students with similar secondary school achievement, based on a statistical model of achievement that accounted for the relative difficulty of achieving each result. These findings indicate that the CUP programme was effective in preparing learners to access and achieve in university.</p>

The Adequacy of the Study Skills of a Cohort of First-Year Nursing Students: An Investigation of Attitudes

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Students ◽  
Study Skills ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Approaches To Learning ◽  
Academic Skills ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Year ◽  
Learning Support ◽  
Study Methods ◽  
Strong Source

The focus of this investigation was the study methods of nursing students during their first year. The sample was 113 first-years. Quantitative data were gathered from all who completed Section C of the revised version of Entwistle and Tait's (1995) Approaches to Learning and Studying. Analysis showed that the majority did not consult their tutors; however peers provided a strong source of learning support. The skills of reading, writing essays, listening to lectures and contributing to seminars were generally satisfactory. However, there was some concern about some of the other basic academic skills of this cohort: in particular their ability to read textbooks.

Approaches to study across four year-levels of undergraduate occupational therapy students: Similar or different?

2016 ◽  
Vol 79 (12) ◽  
pp. 752-761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted Brown ◽  
Yuki Murdolo
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Therapy ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Study Skills ◽  
Approaches To Learning ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Occupational Therapy Students ◽  
Surface Study ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Approaches To Study ◽  
The Mean

Introduction Past studies that have investigated approaches to study adopted by undergraduate students suggest that university learners enrolled in different year-levels in the same academic course may take up different approaches to study. No research to date has investigated how approaches to learning may differ among undergraduate occupational therapy students enrolled in their first, second, third or fourth year of tertiary level study. The aim of the current study was to examine the similarities and differences in approaches to study among four year-levels of occupational therapy students at one Australian university. Method First-, second-, third- and fourth-year undergraduate occupational therapy students ( N = 376; 92.8% response rate) completed the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students. A one-way ANOVA and Tukey HSD were conducted to identify differences in approaches to study across the four year-level cohorts of students. Results Fourth-year students differed significantly from first-, second- and third-year students on the mean scores of the deep and strategic approaches to study ( F(3,372) = 6.958, p = .01 and F(3,372) = 8.366, p = .001 respectively) and on a number of the associated Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students subscales. There was no statistically significant difference across the four student cohorts on the mean score of the surface study approach. Conclusion Findings from the current study highlighted the difficulties in facilitating a deep approach to study and the prevalence of a surface study approach among undergraduate occupational therapy students.

scholarly journals Active entrepreneurship education and the impact on approaches to learning: Mixed methods evidence from a six-year study into one entrepreneurship educator’s classroom

2020 ◽  
pp. 095042222097531
Author(s):  
Vic Curtis ◽  
Rob Moon ◽  
Andy Penaluna
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Approaches To Learning ◽  
Entrepreneurship Education ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Student Approaches To Learning ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Surface Learning ◽  
The Impact

Taking an active and experiential approach to teaching is often assumed to be the best way to promote learning. However, the empirical evidence to support this assertion in entrepreneurship education is inconclusive, and current practice suggests that delivery in higher education is still quite passive and traditional. This 6-year, mixed method study sets out to demonstrate that, in a final-year International Entrepreneurship module at a UK university mapped through the lens of ‘about’, ‘for’ and ‘through’ entrepreneurship, a more innovative, active, experiential and constructively aligned approach to teaching, learning and assessment impacts positively on students’ deep and surface approaches to learning. Students viewed the module as significantly more active than passive and the level of deep learning was significantly greater than the level of surface learning. Additionally, the more active approach was significantly correlated to increased deep learning and reduced surface learning. Students highlighted the active teaching approach and the creation of videos for a local company as part of the authentic assessment as catalysts for deeper learning approaches. The study provides empirical evidence that active entrepreneurship education has a positive impact on student approaches to learning.

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