John B. Biggs

Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment

Two lines of thinking are becoming increasingly important in higher educational practice. The first derives from constructivist learning theory, and the second from the instructional design literature. Constructivism comprises a family of theories but all have in common the centrality of the learners activities in creating meaning. These and related ideas have important implications for teaching and assessment. Instructional designers for their part have emphasised alignment between the objectives of a course or unit and the targets for assessing student performance. “Constructive alignment” represents a marriage of the two thrusts, constructivism being used as a framework to guide decision-making at all stages in instructional design: in deriving curriculum objectives in terms of performances that represent a suitably high cognitive level, in deciding teaching/learning activities judged to elicit those performances, and to assess and summatively report student performance. The “performances of understanding” nominated in the objectives are thus used to systematically align the teaching methods and the assessment. The process is illustrated with reference to a professional development unit in educational psychology for teachers, but the model may be generalized to most units or programs in higher education.

The revised two-factor Study Process Questionnaire: R-SPQ-2F.

AIM To produce a revised two-factor version of the Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) suitable for use by teachers in evaluating the learning approaches of their students. The revised instrument assesses deep and surface approaches only, using fewer items. METHOD A set of 43 items was drawn up for the initial tests. These were derived from: the original version of the SPQ, modified items from the SPQ, and new items. A process of testing and refinement eventuated in deep and surface motive and strategy scales each with 5 items, 10 items per approach score. The final version was tested using reliability procedures and confirmatory factor analysis. SAMPLE The sample for the testing and refinement process consisted of 229 students from the health sciences faculty of a university in Hong Kong. A fresh sample of 495 undergraduate students from a variety of departments of the same university was used for the test of the final version. RESULTS The final version of the questionnaire had acceptable Cronbach alpha values for scale reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good fit to the intended two-factor structure. Both deep and surface approach scales had well identified motive and strategy subscales. CONCLUSION The revision process has resulted in a simple questionnaire which teachers can use to evaluate their own teaching and the learning approaches of their students.

Effects of Learning Skills Interventions on Student Learning: A Meta-Analysis

The aim of this review is to identify features of study skills interventions that are likely to lead to success. Via a meta-analysis we examine 51 studies in which interventions aimed to enhance student learning by improving student use of either one or a combination of learning or study skills. Such interventions typically focused on task-related skills, self-management of learning, or affective components such as motivation and self-concept. Using the SOLO model (Biggs & Collis, 1982), we categorized the interventions (a) into four hierarchical levels of structural complexity and (b) as either near or far in terms of transfer. The results support the notion of situated cognition, whereby it is recommended that training other than for simple mnemonic performance should be in context, use tasks within the same domain as the target content, and promote a high degree of learner activity and metacognitive awareness.

From Theory to Practice: A Cognitive Systems Approach

ABSTRACT Theories of learning and teaching have tended in the past to have been derived top‐down, from existing theory. It is increasingly recognised today that such a strategy oversimplifies a complex reality, in which there is a great deal of mutual interaction. One way of handling the situation is to derive contextualised theories, such as phenomenography. Such theories are however part of a more general model based on systems theory, in which all parts of the teaching‐learning context are seen as seeking equilibrium. A “system” may exist at several levels: The student, the classroom, the institution, the community. The task of teacher and of staff developer is to achieve those good teaching practices that are viable within the existing matrix of systems and subsystems. Implications in such areas as improving teaching and assessment, using questionnaires for assessing teaching, training in study skills, and conducting research, are discussed.

Examining the multidimensionality of approaches to learning through the development of a revised version of the Learning Process Questionnaire.

AIM This study aimed to produce a revised two-factor version of the Learning Process Questionnaire (R-LPQ-2F) with deep and surface approach scales, measured by a reasonably small number of items, suitable for use by teachers in secondary schools to evaluate the learning approaches of their students. METHOD A set of 41 items was derived, with modification, from the original version of the LPQ and from items used to develop the revised version of the SPQ. These items were tested using reliability procedures and confirmatory factor analysis and items were deleted until scales were of a suitable length and confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good fit to the intended two-factor structure. SAMPLE The sample consisted of 841 students from 20 secondary schools in Hong Kong. RESULTS The final two-factor version of the questionnaire had good Cronbach alpha values and reasonable goodness-of-fit values for the confirmatory analysis. There was a much better fit, though, to a hierarchical structure with motive and strategy subscales for each approach, each of which, in turn, had two subcomponents. CONCLUSION Approaches to learning have a hierarchical dimensionality with motive and strategy elements. Each motive and strategy element is itself multidimensional. The results are used to question the conventional approach to the testing and acceptance of instruments, which place sole reliance upon reliability tests. The use of confirmatory factor analysis is recommended as a routine procedure in the development and testing of instruments.

Assessing Learning Quality: reconciling institutional, staff and educational demands

ABSTRACT Two major frameworks for educational decision making, including decisions on assessment, can be distinguished: quantitative, whichis adequate for construing some kinds of learning; and qualitative, which should be the appropriate framework for enabling decisions flowing from most tertiary educational aims. However, for various reasons, institutions implicitly encourage a quantitative framework for assessment‐related decision making, particularly evident in the recent emphasis on accountability and performance indicators. This is unfortunate because, through the backwash effect, quantitative modes of assessment encourage surface approaches to learning, which typically lead to low cognitive‐level outcomes that are not compatible with stated course objectives. It is argued that an institution and its educational practices comprise a system in equilibrium, and that if educational goals are to be realised, the whole system needs to be compatible with those aims.

Assessment and Classroom Learning: a role for summative assessment?

(1998). Assessment and Classroom Learning: a role for summative assessment? Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice: Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 103-110.

The Role of Metacognition in Enhancing Learning.

A model of student learning is outlined which emphasises metacognitive processes; students need to be aware of their motives, of task demands, and of their own cognitive resources, and to exert control over the strategies appropriate for handling the task. Of three common approaches to learning—surface, deep, and achieving—the last two result from the most effective metacognition. Two intervention studies are described, one with at-risk university students and the other with two classes of Year 11 students. Both studies involved teaching study skills in a context emphasising metacognitive awareness. In each case, pre- and post-treatment comparisons showed a significant increase in certain indices of deep and achieving approaches, with evidence for longterm improvements in academic performance. Implications for teaching are discussed.

Learning from the Confucian heritage: so size doesn’t matter?

Abstract Students from Confucian heritage cultures (CHCs), such as China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan, consistently outperform Western students in many academic subjects, under conditions, such as large class teaching, that seem counter-indicated by Western research. These results have been used to justify increases in class size on the grounds that size is irrelevant to effective teaching. Such thinking is simplistic. Children in CHCs are socialized in ways that make them amenable to work in large classes, so that management problems are minimal and teachers can focus on meaningful learning using whole-class methods. An educational system forms a working whole, each component interacting with all other components. Isolating any one component (such as class size) and transplanting it into a different system shows a deep misunderstanding of how educational systems work.

Approaches to Learning and to Essay Writing

The terms learning styles and learning strategies would seem to refer to two different aspects of student learning. Styles are stable ways of approaching tasks that are characteristic of individuals, while strategies are ways of handling particular tasks: styles are focused on the person, strategies on the task.