It is an established belief that students experience difficulties in learning when the learning goals are not clear to them. Data collected in a study of university students' learning difficulties (Ho, Chan, Sun and Yan, 2003) suggest that students require clarification of learning goals of two types: those related to the programme and those related to the learning tasks that students have to undertake.

In attempting to assist students to set appropriate learning goals, the Learning to Learn Project has developed a student workbook "Getting the Most Out of the University: Becoming a Preferred Graduate and a Successful Learner". In conjunction with the workbook, a Teacher Guide has also been developed where you will find examples of simple activities making use of the materials offered by the workbook in different scenarios, including:

Learning difficulties arising from lack of appreciation of programme goals
An important finding of the study is that a lot of students' frustration and de-motivation arise out of mismatches between students' expectation of the programme and the goals of the programme intended by teachers. One common deleterious misconception among students is a 'technician' mentality - expect to be trained as craftsmen possessing all the hands-on skills. Complaints about the curriculum as being too theoretical and not practical enough are frequent across departments. Another common de-motivating factor is associated with students' inabilities to appreciate the relevance of certain subjects and the relationship among subjects in a programme. For example, many engineering students interviewed in the study queried the reasons for studying economics. These students obviously have little understanding of the engineering professional and hence are unable to appreciate the learning goals of the 'non-science' subjects in an engineering curriculum. Such phenomena have become widespread upon the move towards broadening curricular and also the introduction of credit-based system whereby more subjects are taught by servicing departments.

Students need orientation to acquaint them with the programme goals and the rationale behind the course design so that they can establish appropriate learning goals for their study in the programme.

Learning difficulties with specific learning tasks
Many students reported that they were unable to learn effectively in specific tasks such as practicum, open-ended discussion, problem-based learning, role-play, projects... etc. All these are more student-centred activities that require students to learn actively rather than to be taught passively. In many of the student-centred learning tasks, there are two types of learning objectives involved: the 'academic' objectives, which are related to the learning of the subject matter; and the 'developmental' objectives, which are related to the development of useful process skills and higher order cognitive abilities. For example, in group projects, students are expected to develop skills of decision making, communication, team work, leadership, etc. as well as to work on the academic problem; and in problem-based learning, students are supposed to develop their abilities for independent study, analysing issues, and resolving real-life problems.

Students have been used to the learning of subject matter since their secondary schooling, but most of them have little experience with the learning of generic cognitive abilities and process skills. Many of them do not even realise that they have to develop other skills than knowing about the content. Given that they were unable to appreciate the learning goals of the learning task, they obviously will fail to achieve the intended learning outcomes.

Getting the Most Out of Your University: Becoming a Preferred Graduate and a Successful Learner
This handbook is designed to assist students to set appropriate learning goals. There are three sections in the handbook:

Section 1: Becoming a Successful Learner at university
This section induces students to realise the important attributes of a successful learners at university.

Section 2: Becoming a Preferred Graduate in¡K (a specific discipline)
This section clarifies to students the learning goals of their programme of study. It consists of a checklist that reveals to students the qualities of a preferred graduate in their future profession. By completing the checklist students are facilitated to reflect on their developmental needs.

Section 3: Getting the Most out of lectures/ tutorials/ practical work/ fieldwork/ projects/ presentations/ group work/ assignment
This section delineates the nature of the teaching and learning activities commonly used in university, and most importantly it points out to students what they should do in these activities, so that they can achieve the most both in terms of knowledge and skills.

The student workbook 'Getting the Most Out of Your University' is now available both in print version and on web.

Reference:
Ho, A.S.P., Chan, C.H., Sun, L. & Yan, Jackie (2003). Students' perceived difficulties in learning and their implications for learning to learn. In J. Jones, O. Kwo, F.C.T. Moore (Eds.). Developing Learning Environments. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.