Helping Students Achieve High Level Learning

It is not uncommon to find university students relying on memorisation of information as a survival strategy in examinations. In a study into university students' learning difficulties (Ho, Chan, Sun and Yan, 2003), two causes for the reliance on rote learning were revealed: an inadequacy in cognitive abilities and a misconception about learning which focuses on quantity of information instead of quality of understanding. These findings bear two important implications on learning on learn: first, that development of cognitive abilities is of prime importance; and second, that development of learning abilities should start with helping students to change from a quantitative conception of learning to a qualitative one.

In attempting to assist students to achieve high level learning outcomes instead of rote learning, the Learning to Learn Project has developed a student workbook "For the Success of Your Study". In conjunction with this student 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:

Inadequacies in cognitive skills
Cognitive abilities are essential for academic learning. Distressingly, quite a number of university students in the study reported that they experienced difficulties even in achieving basic understanding, particularly when abstract theories were involved. Abundant evidence suggests that many students were struggling with higher order thinking such as application, relating ideas and problem solving. Students admitted that they were handicapped in the higher order cognitive skills for achieving genuine understanding; therefore they retreated to rote learning as a survival strategy. The critical learning to learn need is therefore in enhancing students' cognitive abilities to achieve understanding with their own effort.

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¡K 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.

Misconceptions about learning
Another reason pertaining to a reliance on memorisation of information is also evident in the interview data collected in this study. Students predominantly believed that being able to reproduce a lot of information is important for obtaining good grades. Many students reported, in many cases with grievances, that they found peers who had a good memory for more information were advantaged in examinations. At the same time, lecturers pointed out that students generally tended to write down a lot of facts while paying little attention to structuring the information to show meaning. This phenomenon resembles what Biggs (1999) classifies as a quantitative view of learning outcome, which focuses on quantity of information. In contrast to the quantitative conception is one which focuses on making sense and forming a conceptual framework for oneself - the qualitative conception. Students' perception that a lot of information is required could have originated from a quantitative conception of learning. Hence, the learning to learn need should be conceptualised as a need to change from a quantitative conception to a qualitative one. Students need to realise that quantity alone is not good learning and will not lead to good learning outcome.

For the Success of Your Study
In attempting to assist students to achieve high level learning outcomes instead of rote learning, the Learning to Learn Project has developed a student workbook with the above title. There are two sections in the workbook:

Section 1: Conceptions of learning and approaches to learning
This section, through challenging students with the questions of 'What is good learning?' and 'What is a good answer?' and taking them through a series of reflective activities, confronts students with the differences between a quantitative conception of learning and a qualitative one. It also involves students in reviewing their own approaches to learning. It concludes with engaging students in taking action plans to improve their own learning.

Section 2: Examples of good answers
This section contains examples of good answers which demonstrate various cognitive skills including: (please insert the 'thinking tasks' here). The examples are annotated to show how the cognitive tasks are demonstrated in the answer.

The student workbook 'For the Success of Your Study' is now available both in print version and on web.