Complete thesis - Murdoch University

5.3.1 Diagnostic devicesThese include components of assessment, learning inventories, interaction schedules and toolsfor examining conception. Examples of each of these are available in the study.Tools for diagnosing learningStudents bring a complex assortment of beliefs, past experiences and expectations to a learningsituation, which influence the approach to learning they take. In turn, this approach tolearning affects the quality of their learning outcomes. Their future learning intentions andbehaviours will also reflect this (Prosser and Trigwell, 1999). Additionally, while the achievementof high quality learning is important in all graduates, it has an extra relevance wherethe context of practice is continually changing and professions are continuously developing.There is a need, therefore to identify aspects of the learners’ conceptions of learning (Meyerand Shanahan, 2000) and approaches to it so that appropriate support can be provided.Early work in the UK and Australia (eg Entwistle et al (1974); Biggs (1970) identified motivationand personality as of prime importance, with the later addition of information processing(Craik and Lockhart, 1972) and intention factors (Marton and Saljo, 1976) (roteversus meaningful, deep versus surface) to the web of interrelationships. The approach tolearning that a student takes is very sensitive to the context in which learning is done, with ademonstrated correlation between more advanced conceptions (eg abstraction of meaning andunderstanding of reality (Van Rossum and Schenk, 1984)) and a deep approach to learning.This conception to a large extent determines the student’s expectation of what the learningprocess and teaching entail. Thus, for some students, the ability to take a deep approachappears to be limited by the conception they hold of learning.A variety of self-reporting questionnaires have resulted from this interest in different aspects ofstudent learning behaviour, and from the underlying requirement to demonstrate effectivenessand efficiency in teaching. In general these apply similar formats and psychometric principles(usually based on Likert scales).An informed choice on which instruments to apply may be based on Curry (1983)’s onionmodel (see Figure 5.8). This was originally described as having three layers: a central coremade up of personality-centred models specifically related to how learners prefer to acquireand integrate information (such as the LSI); a stratum of information-processing models toexamine a learners intellectual approach to assimilation of new information, based on theapproaches to studying literature (such as ASI) and an outer layer of instructional-preferencemodels of learning style relating to external factors such as physiological and environmental230