learning-styles

Entwistle (1998) draws directly on Perry to argue
that students’ conceptions of learning are linked to
their progress through these stages of thinking about
knowledge and evidence. Yet this development takes
time and it cannot be assumed, for example, that
first-year undergraduates can readily use relativist
thinking, even though many curricula and assessment
tasks assume that they can. Drawing on Marton and
Säljö’s ideas about deep and surface learning (1976),
Entwistle argues that if students have a sophisticated
conception of learning and a rich understanding of the
nature of knowledge and evidence, they adopt a deep
approach in order to reach their own understanding
of material and ideas. If, on the other hand, they see
learning as memorising or acquiring facts, and their
intention is merely to meet course requirements
or to respond to external injunctions, they are likely to
adopt a surface approach. A surface approach relies
on identifying those elements within a task that are
likely to be assessed and then memorising the details.
However, students do not only adopt deep and surface
approaches. The structure of a curriculum and the
demands of summative assessment exert a strong
influence on approaches to learning. Entwistle argues
that summative assessment in higher education
usually encourages a strategic approach where students
combine deep and surface approaches in order to
achieve the best possible marks. Students using this
approach become adept at organising their study time
and methods, attend carefully to cues given by teachers
as to what type of work gains good grades or what
questions will come up in examinations. If this argument
is valid, it is likely that the increased use of explicit,
detailed assessment criteria used in many courses
will encourage this strategic approach.
Students’ approaches to learning emerge in subtle,
complex ways from orientations, conceptions
of learning and types of knowledge and different
motives. All these factors fluctuate over time and
between tasks. Entwistle argues that consistency
and variation in approaches can therefore be
evident simultaneously. However, he maintains that
students show sufficient consistency ‘in intention
and process across broadly similar academic tasks
to justify measuring it as a dimension’ (Entwistle,
Hanley and Hounsell 1979, 367). Studies, such
as those by Pask (1976), demonstrate students’
consistency in experimental situations and normal
studying, but qualitative studies by Marton and Säljö
(eg 1976) show evidence of variability, where students
adapt their approaches according to the demands
of a specific task.
This evidence leads Entwistle to argue that a focus
on process rather than intention affects the degree
of consistency or variability of students’ approaches.
Entwistle differentiates between a ‘style’ – as a broader
characteristic of a student’s preferred way of tackling
learning tasks; and ‘strategy’ – as a description of the
way that a student chooses to tackle a specific task
in the light of its perceived demands. Entwistle draws
on Pask’s distinction between holist and serialist
strategies to argue that distinct learning styles underlie
strategies. These styles are based on relatively fixed
predispositions towards comprehension learning and
operation learning (see the introduction to Section 7
for explanation).
Strategy is defined (Entwistle, Hanley and Hounsell
1979, 368; original emphasis) as the way ‘a student
chooses to deal with a specific learning task in the
light of its perceived demands’ and style ‘as a broader
characterisation of a student’s preferred way of tackling
learning tasks generally’.
Entwistle argues (1990, 675) that stylistic preferences
are often strong:
perhaps reflecting cerebral dominance of left (serialist)
or right (holist) hemispheres of the brain, combined
with firmly established personality characteristics of the
individual. Strong stylistic preferences may be rather
difficult to modify, implying that choice in both materials
and methods of learning is important for allowing
students to learn effectively.
It is not clear what evidence Entwistle draws upon
to link comprehension and operation learning directly
to ideas about brain hemispheres or personality.
Evidence from studies that explore the effects
of personality on studying leads Entwistle to argue
that it is possible to identify three distinct personality
types in higher education courses:
non-committers (cautious, anxious, disinclined
to take risks)
hustlers (competitive, dynamic, but insensitive)
plungers (emotional, impulsive and individualistic).
Over time, he argues (1998), these might develop
towards an ideal fourth type – the reasonable
adventurer who combines curiosity and the ability
to be critical and reflective. Entwistle, McCune and
Walker (2001, 108) argue that:
the intentions to learn in deep or surface ways are
mutually exclusive, although the related learning
processes may sometimes become mixed in everyday
experience. The combination of deep and strategic
approaches is commonly found in successful students,
but a deep approach on its own is not carried through
with sufficient determination and effort to reach
deep levels of understanding.
Defining features of approaches to learning and
studying are represented in Table 32: