British Journal of Educational Psychology

Summary. This paper describes an attempt to identify different levels of processing of information among groups of Swedish university students who were asked to read substantial passages of prose. Students were asked questions about the meaning of the passages and also about how they set about reading the passages. This approach allows processes and strategies of learning to be examined, as well as the outcomes in terms of what is understood and remembered. The starting point of this research was that learning has to be described in terms of its content. From this point differences in what is learned, rather than differences in how much is learned, are described. It was found that in each study a number of categories (levels of outcome) containing basically different conceptions of the content of the learning task could be identified. The corresponding differences in level of processing are described in terms of whether the learner is engaged in surface‐level or deep‐level processing.

Background. This paper explores the conceptual and methodological problems arising from several empirical investigations of professional education and learning in the workplace. Aims. 1. To clarify the multiple meanings accorded to terms such as ‘ non‐formal learning’, ‘ implicit learning’ and ‘ tacit knowledge’, their theoretical assumptions and the range of phenomena to which they refer. 2. To discuss their implications for professional practice. Method. A largely theoretical analysis of issues and phenomena arising from empirical investigations. Analysis. The author's typology of non‐formal learning distinguishes between implicit learning, reactive on‐the‐spot learning and deliberative learning. The significance of the last is commonly overemphasised. The problematic nature of tacit knowledge is discussed with respect to both detecting it and representing it. Three types of tacit knowledge are discussed: tacit understanding of people and situations, routinised actions and the tacit rules that underpin intuitive decision‐making. They come together when professional performance involves sequences of routinised action punctuated by rapid intuitive decisions based on tacit understanding of the situation. Four types of process are involved‐reading the situation, making decisions, overt activity and metacognition‐and three modes of cognition‐intuitive, analytic and deliberative. The balance between these modes depends on time, experience and complexity. Where rapid action dominates, periods of deliberation are needed to maintain critical control. Finally the role of both formal and informal social knowledge is discussed; and it is argued that situated learning often leads not to local conformity but to greater individual variation as people's careers take them through a series of different contexts. This abstract necessarily simplifies a more complex analysis in the paper itself.

Summary. The essential point of the present study is that human learning should be studied from a second‐order perspective. This means that the emphasis is on how people see and understand the world around them. Attention is given to the ways in which students tackle the studying of a text, using the distinction introduced by Marton and Säljö between a deep‐level and a surface‐level approach. Also investigated is the extent to which these study strategies can be related to the views of students on learning itself (learning conceptions) and the quality of the learning outcome. It turned out that a learning outcome of relatively high quality must be especially associated with deep‐level approach and a constructive learning conception.

Background. Longitudinal studies of students’ approaches to learning in higher education can tell us much about the impact of the tertiary experience. More information about teaching and learning practices and how students respond to these may enable educators to better assist students to gain the maximum benefit from their tertiary studies. Aims. The study set out: (i) to monitor the change in approaches to learning over a three‐year period; (ii) to evaluate the relationship between student age, sex and university entry mode on students’ approaches to learning; and (iii) to evaluate the predictive validity of the SPQ scales on one mode of learning outcome, that being annual GPA. Samples. The sample consisted of 200 commencing students studying in a science course at an Australian university. Method. The Biggs SPQ was administered in a first‐year chemistry class and repeated at intervals of 4 and 8 months. This was followed by administration by post after 16 months and 30 months. Results. Student approach to learning is dynamic and amenable to change as a result of the learning experience. Of the three SPQ scales, the achieving approach appears to undergo the greatest change with time, while the deep approach showed a consistent positive correlation with assessment outcomes. Student age was a major factor in both the SPQ scores and assessment outcomes but no gender effect was evident. Conclusions. Students see university study, and in particular the first year, as a survival course and adopt strategies suited to that task. Older students adopt approaches to study which differ from their younger colleagues and as a consequence they are in general more successful in the tertiary environment.

Background: Two theories in the field of motivation and achievement, namely the future time perspective theory and goal theory, result in conflicting recommendations for enhancing students' motivation, because of their differential emphasis on the task at hand and on the future consequences of a task.

Aims: We will present a framework consisting of four types of instrumentality that combines both perspectives. The implications of those different types for goal orientation, motivation, cognitive strategies, study habits and performance are investigated.

Samples: Participants were a group of 184 first‐year nurse students with ages ranging from 18 to 45 years.

Methods: Questionnaires were administered that measured instrumentality, goal orientation, motivation, deep and surface level learning strategies, study habits, and a manipulation check. At the end of the year, exam scores were collected.

Results: The results showed that different types of instrumentality are related differently to the motivational, cognitive and achievement measures. Being internally regulated and perceiving the utility of the courses resulted both in a more adaptive goal orientation and higher intrinsic motivation, which led to the use of more adaptive cognitive strategies and to better study habits, which ultimately enhanced performance. Linking performance to extrinsic rewards and not seeing the utility of the course for the future yielded the opposite pattern.

Conclusions: Type of instrumentality has indeed a differential influence on motivational, cognitive, and behavioural variables.

SUMMARY. Eighty‐one students were asked to read an article under different conditions of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. The conditions were varied by choosing the sample so as to make the article relevant or irrelevant to contrasting subgroups, thus attempting to control the level of intrinsic motivation. The test conditions were varied to increase ego‐involvement and threat to self‐esteem in one situation, while providing a situation for other subgroups which was supportive and non‐demanding. The qualitative differences in learning process and outcomes and the quantitative differences in recall of factual knowledge were investigated in relation to the various experimental subgroups created. Self‐reports on trait and state test‐anxiety, and the extent to which the students had actually experienced the types of motivation intended to be produced by experimental manipulation, were also investigated in relation to qualitative and quantitative differences in learning. Lack of interest in the text, efforts to adapt to expected test demands, and high test anxiety, were all found to increase the tendency towards surface‐processing and ineffective, reproductive attempts at recall. However, an adaptive approach allied to strong interest and low anxiety produced a high proportion of deep‐level approaches with good factual recall.

Background. A small number of prior studies have found that victims of school bullying tend to exhibit poor social skills. Few of these have examined this issue from multiple perspectives, and there has been a focus on a restricted range of social skills.

Aims. To determine the extent to which self, peers, and teachers regard victims as having poorer social skills than non‐victims across 20 behaviours/competencies.

Sample. A convenience sample of 330 pupils aged between 9 and 11 years (162 girls and 168 boys) provided self‐report and peer‐report data. They were drawn from 12 classes from 6 junior schools in the UK. Additionally, 11 of the class teachers provided data.

Method. Three separate methods were employed and in each case, participants were provided with 20 short statements that described a different social skill: (1) participants who were classified as either ‘victims’ or ‘non‐victims’ (using peer nominations) rated themselves on a 3‐point scale in terms of how like them each description was, (2) participants were asked to think of a victim and a non‐victim in their class and to rate both of these people on each description, and (3) teachers were asked to rate a previously identified victim and a non‐victim from their class on each description.

Results. Using a direct discriminant function analysis of the self‐ratings, six of the social skills items were found to discriminate between victims and non‐victims, and the discriminant function was able to correctly classify 80% of the participants. For 18 of the items, peer ratings indicated significantly more pronounced social skills problems for victims than for non‐victims. Teacher ratings were significant for eight of the social skill items, and in each case, victims were rated as having greater problems.

Conclusion. The finding that victims are perceived by three different sources to have poor social skills has important implications for interventions to support victims of bullying.

Summary. Research into qualitative differences in students' approaches to study, the quality of learning outcomes, and the relations between them has, in the main, been conducted on learning resulting from involvement in small academic tasks such as reading an academic article. This study, based on a sample of 122 first year university nursing students, focused on student learning on the whole course. The results of the study confirmed the hypothesised relationship between approach and outcome at the course level. In the process, an indicator of qualitative differences in learning outcomes at the course level was developed. The results also provided further support for the validity of three subscales of the Approaches to Study Inventory, and cast further doubt on the use of assessment results as measures of learning outcomes.

Summary. This paper discusses the cultural specificity of constructs reported in research into approaches to study of western students. Data are reported from a survey of approaches to study of students at a Hong Kong tertiary institution. The Biggs' Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) was administered to a sample of 1043 students. The SPQ and the Approaches to Studying Inventory were both administered to a smaller sample to aid in interpretation of the data. The resulting factor structures for deep and achieving approach scales were reasonably consistent with those obtained in western countries. However, the results cast doubt on the direct transferability of the surface approach construct to Hong Kong students for whom a narrow approach appeared to predominate, characterised by a systematic, step‐by‐step, processing of information. Students tried to understand each segment of information before committing it to memory. It is suggested that the different approaches might arise because of either limited English language ability or the nature of schooling and upbringing of children in Hong Kong.