The Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) continues to be applied in a wide range of pedagogical situations. However, the question remains as to how well a researcher understands the conceptual basis behind the tool they choose. This essay provides a compact and comprehensive view of the conceptual basis for the development of the original SPQ, and…

Teaching and learning research since the 1980s has established a trend in students' learning approach tendencies, characterised by decreasing surface learning and increasing deep learning with increasing age. This is an important trend in higher education, especially at a time of increasing numbers of older students: are we graduating more deep…

The field of education technology is embracing a use of learning analytics to improve student experiences of learning. Along with exponential growth in this area is an increasing concern of the interpretability of the analytics from the student experience and what they can tell us about learning. This study offers a way to address some of the…

In understanding how active and blended learning approaches with learning technologies engagement in undergraduate education, current research models tend to undermine the effect of learners' variations, particularly regarding their styles and approaches to learning, on intention and use of learning technologies. This study contributes to further…

Student learning inventories are used by both researchers and educators as tools to identify "at risk" students. This article critically interrogates the results of one of these inventories, the 18-item Approaches to Learning and Studying Inventory. In-depth interviews were held with a purposive sample of 10 first-year engineering…

The use of lecture capture in higher education is becoming increasingly widespread, with many instructors now providing digital videos of lecture content that can be used by students as learning resources in a variety of ways, including to catch up on material after a class absence. Despite accumulating research regarding the relationship between…

The challenge of teaching programming in higher education is complicated by problems associated with large class teaching, a prevalent situation in many developing countries. This paper reports on an investigation into the use of a blended learning approach to teaching and learning of programming in a class of more than 200 students. A course and…

Cooperative learning may improve students' motivation, understanding of course concepts, and academic performance. This study therefore enhanced a cooperative, group-project learning technique with technology resources to determine whether doing so improved students' deep learning and performance. A sample of 118 engineering students, randomly…

This study empirically investigated learning approaches of management graduate students in China. The representative sample consisted of 208 MBA students in a professional accreditation business program in careers, namely the part-time MBA program, provided by Zhejiang University (ZJU) during the 2010/2011 academic year. The instrument used to…

Where courses have as an aim the promotion of reflective practice, it will enhance the achievement of the goal if the level of reflective thinking is assessed. To do this in a satisfactory way requires a reliable protocol for assessing the level of reflection in written work. This article presents a protocol that can be used to guide the…

The Biggs' Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) was used to test competing models of students' approaches to learning in a sample of undergraduate students (n = 125) from an inquiry based Bachelor of Health Sciences program. In addition to an internal consistency and test-retest reliability analysis of the SPQ, confirmatory factor analysis was used…

Describes two studies that were conducted to investigate the relationship between confidence in the language of instruction and approaches to learning: one with university students in Hong Kong, and one with high school students in Nepal. The use of English as a Second Language both in and out of the classroom is examined. (13 references) (LRW)

Examines the effectiveness of active learning implemented in two undergraduate programs at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Discusses student attitudes and the Study Process Questionnaire that measured student approaches to learning and reports that active learning helped in the development of independent learning skills and the ability to…