Abstracts - Earli

the University’s mission statement on development of students’ generic attributes. Thesignificance and originality of this paper is that it has extended Barrie’s study by exploring waysof translating these conceptions into the production of educational tools to enrich students’learning experience to prepare them for developing the attributes that are important in theprofessional context. Two rounds of semi-structured interviews, which involved 57 universityteachers and 27 final year students from 14 departments of the University. The first round ofinterviews was to identify the key generic competencies and their associated conceptions.Interviewees of the second round of interviews were asked to construct a case or problem aroundthe identified key competency by suggesting workplace scenarios in which graduates would belikely to need the competency and the consequences of their not being able to demonstrate it.Twelve generic competencies were identified: critical / analytical thinking, time management andorganizational / self learning skills, communication / presentation skills, work ethics and socialresponsibility, interpersonal skills, global outlook, problem solving, biliteracy and trilingualism,creative thinking and leadership. Case examples are given to illustrate how these genericcompetencies align with the "translation" and the "enabling" conceptions and how the educationaltools have been produced.A metacognitive profile of doctoral studentsJill Scevak, University of Newcastle, AustraliaRobert Cantwell, University of Newcastle, AustraliaSid Bourke, University of Newcastle, AustraliaAnna Reid, Macquarie University, AustraliaThe purpose of the study was to identify the metacognitive attributes of a cohort of doctoralstudents from two universities as measured by a series of self-report instruments. Consistent withexpectations, the cohort presented a positive metacognitive profile, with critical measures ofcoping, efficacy, volition and knowledge at the higher end of the scales, and measures ofprocrastinatory behaviours at the lower end of the scales. However, further analysis revealedwithin cohort differences within this profile, with cluster analytic techniques identifying threemetacognitive groupings – one that was potentially non-problematic, a second that was potentiallyanxious and dependent, and a third that was associated with potentially weaker and at-riskcandidates. The implications of these data for supervisory pedagogy are raised.Relationships between student identity, perceptions of the learning community, approaches tolearning and performanceAna-Maria Bliuc, University of Sydney, AustraliaRobert A. Ellis, University of Sydney, AustraliaPeter Goodyear, University of Sydney, AustraliaIntegrating ideas from student approaches to learning (SAL, Marton & Säljß, 1976a, 1976b;Entwistle and Ramsden, 1983; Marton and Booth, 1997; Prosser and Trigwell, 1999; Biggs, 2003)and social identity theories (SIT, Tajfel & Turner, 1984) this study focuses on the relationshipbetween students’ approaches to learning, their performance, and social and psychological aspectsof learning. Specifically, students’ identity and perceptions of learning community (as captured bythe Learning community scale, McInnis, 2001) and their role in relation to students’ approaches tolearning were explored. Linear regression analysis revealed that a strong student identity wasassociated to a deep approach to learning which in turn is linked to higher marks. Also higherscores on the Learning community scale are related to a deep approach to learning. Significantly, asurface approach is not associated to students’ identity and their perceptions of the learning– 348 –