Abstracts - Earli

with each statement, using a five- point Likert scale. The ASSIST measures students’ approachesto learning primarily on three dimensions- -deep, strategic, and surface/apathetic. Three questionswill be answered using both ANOVA and MANOVA for analysis: What are the preferred methodsof study among Turkish and American students; do Turkish and American students differ in theirapproaches to learning; do approaches to learning differ as a function of demographic data, such asmajor in school or year of schooling. Analysis of these data is in progress.Students’ usage and tutors’ intentions of coursework feedbackStephen Merry, Staffordshire University, United KingdomPaul Orsmond, Staffordshire University, United KingdomTutors’ intentions, when they provide feedback, may not be accurately perceived and acted on bystudents. Furthermore, little is known about how tutors construct feedback and much of thefeedback provided may have little effect on student learning (Higgins et al., 2002; Rust, 2002).This study concerns feedback provided to 15 Level 2 Biological Sciences students at StaffordshireUniversity by 5 tutors. Semi-structured interviews were used to identify the circumstances inwhich each instance of feedback was provided, the tutor’s intentions when providing the feedbackand the students’ perceptions and usage of that feedback. A phenomenological approach (Giorgi &Giorgi, 2003) was used to analyse the interview data. Additionally, copies of the documentedfeedback were examined and the style of feedback classified (Brown et al., 2003). Students’interpretation of tutor feedback was found to be highly individual. Students may be looking forparticular things and this leads to interpretation and implementation differently to how the tutorintended. Analysis of tutor feedback styles indicates that developmental aspects of students’learning were rarely addressed. The majority of comments involved giving praise for whatstudents had done in the present assignment, identifying errors in the assignment and correctingmisunderstandings. Finally, tutors admitted that they had little real knowledge as to whether theirfeedback was useful to students. These findings suggest that tutors need to provide guidance tostudents regarding the use their feedback in order to make its meaning more explicit and also toraise students’ awareness of the effect that their personal agendas can have on the interpretation offeedback. References available in the extended summary.M 1431 August 2007 14:35 - 15:55Room: 0.100BPaper SessionComprehension of text and graphicsChair:Zoltán Tóth, KLTE, HungaryCollaboratively generated graphical representations as a means of fostering knowledge acqusitionin the domain of business educationCarmela Aprea, University of Mannheim, GermanyHermann G. Ebner, University of Mannheim, GermanyLearner-generated graphical representations (e.g. knowledge maps, mind maps, concept maps) arereceiving increased attention in educational research and practice, mainly because they are deemed– 711 –