An investigation into the association between qualitatively different perceptions of the learning context and students' approaches to studying

Parsons, Philip

An investigation into the association between qualitatively different perceptions of the learning context and students' approaches to studying

Doctoral Thesis

1992

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

School of Education

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

A number of distinct paradigms exist in the field of research into student learning in higher education. It is inevitable that new research initiatives will adopt one of these paradigms as the primary focus of the investigation. However, the relationship that exists between paradigms is not one of mutual exclusivity; rather it is synergetic in nature with developments in one informing advances in another. The perspective adopted in this thesis research is grounded in the naturalistic investigations into student learning in higher education undertaken by Noel Entwistle and his fellow researchers. When reference is made to this distinctive paradigm it is not to suggest that other researchers, adopting fundamentally different paradigms, have not informed the development of the concepts and ideas that are distinctive to this perspective. Indeed, parallel work undertaken by John Biggs into student motivation and its relation to approaches to studying made a significant contribution to the development of specific aspects of the paradigm, a contribution which may not be explicitly clear to readers unfamiliar with the early development of the Approaches to Studying Inventory. Similarly, the pioneering work on the intellectual development of students in higher education undertaken by William Perry provided an important basis for the refinement of concepts within the paradigm that this thesis research has adopted. Because the work of these researchers is implicitly acknowledged, it is important to stress that their role was at least as important as the role of those whose contributions are more explicitly evident, and who subsequently took their ideas and developed them further within the specific paradigm.