Noel Entwistle

Learning styles and approaches: implications for medical education.

Summary. This paper reviews the recent literature on learning styles and approaches to learning. It identifies two separate streams of research, one originating from mainstream cognitive and psychometric psychology and one from research undertaken within the everyday learning environment. The latter is dealt with in greater detail as it seems to have more immediate practical relevance.

Identifying Distinctive Approaches to Studying.

Dimensions which have been used to describe various aspects of studying are reviewed. These draw attention to three distinctive approaches to studying which contain elements of both study processes and motivation. The development of an inventory of approaches to studying is reported which confirmed the importance of these three dimensions, but also drew attention to the importance of characteristic styles of learning in describing the processes through which students arrive at different levels of under-standing.

Patterns of response to an approaches to studying inventory across contrasting groups and contexts

The development of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) is reported, which incorporates a revised version of the Approaches to Studying Inventory. This questionnaire was completed by three separate samples; 1284 mainly first-year students from six British universities, 466 first-year students from a Scottish technological university; and 219 students from a ‘historically disadvantaged” South African university. Analyses of these data were designed to explore the patterns of response found in sub-groups which varied in terms of their levels of attainment and contexts. Maximum likelihood analysis of the largest sample confirmed the expected three factors of deep, surface apathetic, and strategic approaches to studying, and almost identical patterns were also found in the other two samples, and in students having contrasting levels of attainment. There were, however, some interesting minor differences in the South African sample. K-means relocation cluster analysis was then carried out on the largest sample and produced clusters with generally coherent patterns of response. However, one persistent low attainment cluster showed unexpected, dissonant patterns of response, combining moderately high scores on the sub-scales of both deep and surface apathetic approaches, associated with low scores on the strategic approach.RésuméLes auteurs rendent compte du développement d’un questionnaire intitulé ‘Approaches and Study Skills Inventory’ for Students’ (ASSIST) qui incorpore une version révisée de ‘Approaches to Studing Inventory’. Le questionnaire a été rempli par trois échantillons distincts: 1284 étudiants de première année de six universités britanniques, 466 étudiants de première année d’une université technologique écossaise, et 219 étudiants d’une université sud-africaine connue pour son public socialement défavorisé. Les analyses de données ont été conduites pour explorer les patterns de réponses trouvées dans les sous-groupes présentant des variations dans leurs niveaux d’acquisition et dans leurs contextes. L’analyse des données réalisée sur le plus grand échantillon confirme l’existence des trois facteurs attendus d’indifférence profonde, d’indifférence de surface et de stratégies d’approche dans les études; des patterns presque identiques ont été également trouvés dans les deux autres échantillons et pour des étudiants ayant des niveaux contrastés d’acquisitions. On a cependant trouvé quelques différences mineures intéressantes dans l’échantillon sud-africain. Une analyse de cluster a ensuite été effectuée sur le plus grand échantillon et a produit des clusters avec des patterns de réponse en général cohérents. On a cependant observé un cluster récurrent et inattendu chez les étudiants en difficulté concernant un pattern dissonant de réponse combinant des scores modérément élevés aux deux sous-échelles d’indifférence profonde et de surface associés à des scores faibles d’approche stratégique.

Motivational Factors in Students' Approaches to Learning

This chapter describes the theoretical background to, and the development and use of, an Approaches-to-Studying Inventory. This inventory covers the two main components consistently found to be predictive of academic success—organized study methods and active learning processes (Weinstein & Underwood, 1985)—but it also includes a series of motivational components. It is, of course, commonplace to attribute levels of attainment to the degree of effort exerted which, in turn, is explained in terms of the motivational characteristics of the learner. But the research based on the use of this inventory goes further. It indicates clearly that there are distinctive forms of motivation which affect the outcome of learning both quantitatively and qualitatively. The differing forms of motivation are associated with contrasting learning processes and, so, with qualitatively different outcomes.

Identifying students at risk through ineffective study strategies

As the proportion of students entering higher education rises, difficulties caused by inadequate preparation also increase. An ongoing study is developing a computer-based system to identify students whose study skills and strategies appear to be ineffective, which will also provide advice to students that is to some extent targeted to their individual needs. This paper concentrates on the first stages of this project which have involved developing an appropriate questionnaire and inventory, and ensuring that the inventory is technically sound. This instrument is a revised version of the Approaches to Studying Inventory, designed to identify students with weak study strategies. The main part of the project has involved developing a computer-based package to support both staff and students in improving study skills. It allows students to complete the inventory interactively on computer, and staff to collect data from a whole class and so identify students who seem to need help with their study skills or strategies. The paper concludes with a discussion of the rationale underlying the form in which advice is being provided to students, and a brief description of the ways in which that advice is being structured and presented to students within a HyperCard system.

Contrasting forms of understanding for degree examinations: the student experience and its implications

Previous research on student learning has established the importance of the constrasting conceptions of learning held by students, and of the distinction between deep and surface approaches to learning. It has also shown that the outcome of learning may be described in terms of qualitatively different levels and that different forms of examination encourage different levels of answer. Within all these studies the nature of the understanding which is developed has been rather taken for granted. In this essentially exploratory study, a detailed examination of the interview transcripts of 13 students, who had just completed their final degree, was supplemented by analyses of written responses from an additional 11 students in their final undergraduate year. In the interviews, the students were asked about the revision strategies they had adopted and their attempts to develop understanding, and aspects of these were explored further through the written responses. Analyses of both interviews and written responses indicated the existence of differing forms of understanding which parallel, to some extent, the conceptions of learning identified previously. Links were also explored between the revision strategies adopted and the forms of understanding reached. Implications of the findings suggest that traditional degree examinations do not consistently test deep, conceptual understanding. It appears that some students gear their revision to question types which can be answered within frameworks provided by the lecturer or a textbook and that the type of questions set has a strong influence on the forms of understanding students seek during their studying and their revision. Some types of question encourage, and test, a restricted form of conceptual understanding. It also seems that the particular types of structure used in a lecture course to provide a framework also has an important influence on the ease with which students can relate it to other courses and also develop their own understanding.

Conceptions and Beliefs About “Good Teaching”: An integration of contrasting research areas

Previous research on conceptions of teaching comes from three distinct areas. The first is based on interviews with students and staff in higher education, the second involves the investigation of the conceptions and beliefs of schoolteachers, while the third derives from more general consideration of the nature of conceptions themselves. The empirical study reported here drew on these differing research areas to distinguish between beliefs and conceptions about good teaching and to explore their possible origins. The data came from student teachers, but the findings contribute to current thinking about conceptions of teaching in higher education. Bringing the empirical findings together with the three areas of previous research enables a more complete concept map to be drawn to summarise what may underlie the notion of “good teaching”.

Experiences of Understanding in Revising for Degree Examinations.

Abstract In much of the qualitative research on student learning in higher education, a distinction is made between approaches to learning which focus on understanding and those which rely on reproduction. Yet the nature of understanding which underlies academic studying has not been investigated. Here an exploratory study is reported which analyzes the interview responses of undergraduate students who had recently completed their revision for final degree examinations. By rigorous qualitative analysis of the transcripts a series of categories were established which described the main aspects of the nature of understanding as experienced by these students, and of how understanding was developed. Subsequent analyses indicated that there were contrasting forms of understanding which differed in terms of the breadth and depth of the understanding sought, and of the ways in which the material was organized or structured for revision purposes. Implications for teaching and examining in higher education were considered.

Knowledge exchange: a review and research agenda for environmental management

There is increasing emphasis on the need for effective ways of sharing knowledge to enhance environmental management and sustainability. Knowledge exchange (KE) are processes that generate, share and/or use knowledge through various methods appropriate to the context, purpose, and participants involved. KE includes concepts such as sharing, generation, coproduction, comanagement, and brokerage of knowledge. This paper elicits the expert knowledge of academics involved in research and practice of KE from different disciplines and backgrounds to review research themes, identify gaps and questions, and develop a research agenda for furthering understanding about KE. Results include 80 research questions prefaced by a review of research themes. Key conclusions are: (1) there is a diverse range of questions relating to KE that require attention; (2) there is a particular need for research on understanding the process of KE and how KE can be evaluated; and (3) given the strong interdependency of research questions, an integrated approach to understanding KE is required. To improve understanding of KE, action research methodologies and embedding evaluation as a normal part of KE research and practice need to be encouraged. This will foster more adaptive approaches to learning about KE and enhance effectiveness of environmental management.

Styles of learning and approaches to studying in higher education

Gordon Pask contributed greatly to ways of conceptualising student learning in higher education. In particular, the three learning or conceptual styles – holist, serialist and versatile – together with the associated pathologies of globetrotting and improvidence, have helped to describe important differences in the ways students tackle academic tasks and in their preferences for differing styles of teaching. These concepts are related to other distinctions used to describe student learning – deep, surface, and strategic approaches to learning – and this article summarises research by the author and his colleagues into the patterns of relationship which have been identified. These studies have used large‐scale inventory surveys, but also intensive interviews with students which have explored how students seek to develop conceptual understanding, another important area explored by Pask. Increasingly, this research is indicating ways of improving teaching in higher education in ways which directly affect the quality of student learning.