Abstracts - Earli

which have evolved throughout their schooldays and these may or may not be likely to facilitatelearning in the tertiary environment. We investigated the learning approaches preferred by studentsenrolled in a four year undergraduate pharmacy degree at the University of Sydney usingVermunt’s Inventory of Learning Styles (Vermunt, 1998) using a cross-sectional repeatedmeasures design. In addition we investigated the relationship between approaches to learning andacademic performance, and the influence of gender and domain of learning. We found a strongpreference for application directed approaches in all four years, and a significant positiverelationship between this orientation and academic performance. Pharmacy students thusdemonstrated a strong vocational orientation to learning and a belief that learning comprises theuse of knowledge, rather than intake of knowledge or constructing knowledge. However we alsofound poor levels of self-regulation, ambivalence regarding learning orientations, and dependenceupon external sources of help, together with lower preferences for deep processing strategies.These findings are consistent with the observations of pharmacy academics and clinicians thatmany students tended to adopt surface learning approaches and were reluctant to engage in selfdirectedand reflective practices.The interplay of attitude to the course, perceptions of the learning environment and learningstrategies: a study amongst International Business students.Jan Nijhuis, university Maastricht, NetherlandsMien Segers, University Leiden, NetherlandsPrevious research on student learning has examined the relationships between the perceptions ofthe learning environment and learning strategies. However, learner related characteristics are alsorelevant. In this respect the attitude to the discipline in terms of, affection, cognitive competence,value and difficulty could be a relevant variable in explaining students’ learning strategies. To datethe influence of this factor on both students’ perceptions and their learning strategies has receivedlittle attention. This study will focus on the joint relationships between students’ attitude to thediscipline, their perceptions of the learning environment, and the learning strategies they used. Thestudy was conducted in an International Business program, with 350 students participating in theresearch project. Three questionnaires were administered; an adapted version of the Survey ofAttitudes Towards Statistics (now focussed on the discipline Strategy) (Gal, Schau, Ginsburg,1997), the Course Experiences Questionnaire measuring the perception of the learningenvironment (Ramsden, 1997) and Study Process Questionnaire for measuring learning strategies(Biggs, 1987). Linear regression was conducted to assess the nature of the relationships betweenattitude to the discipline, perceptions of the learning environment, and learning strategies. Bothattitude to the discipline and perceptions of the learning environment are related to learningstrategies. Multiple regression analysis revealed that only a limited number of variables are relatedto learning strategies.Final year biosciences students’ willingness to engage: teaching-learning environments, authenticlearning experiences and identitiesVelda McCune, University Edinburgh, United KingdomThis paper focuses on investigating what underpins experienced biosciences students’ willingnessto engage actively with their studies. In the context of this analysis, active engagement is seen asbeing situated within specific disciplinary contexts and communities. Thus active engagementimplies students working within the ways of thinking and practising (WTP) of the subject area.The interview transcripts which form the basis of this analysis are a subset of the data from theEnhancing Teaching-Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses (ETL) Project, a large-– 256 –