A tutor's guide to teaching and learning at UQ - TEDI - University of ...

Section 2: Understanding Student Learning 11SECTION 2Understanding Student LearningWhat do students learn?According to research (e.g., Arnold et al, 1991; Laird, 1985)generally students retain:♦♦♦♦♦20% of what they hear30% of what they see50% of what they see and hear70% of what they see, hear and say90% of what they see, hear, say and doAs Confucius says, "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand".Consequently, effective learning is most likely to occur if students have the opportunityto hear a lecture or discussion, see a demonstration or visual display, discuss thematerial, and have an opportunity to do something with this material. ‘Doing’something is what we call ‘active learning’, engaging with the learning material throughactivities by themselves and with other students.Therefore, in universities where the common structure for a course of study compriseslectures and tutorials or lab sessions, the role of the tutor and the tutorial becomes vitalfor the learning process. It is the small group environment of the tutorial that canprovide most opportunities for students to ‘say’ and ‘do’, what they have seen and heardin the lecture.However, not all students learn in the same way. The next section will discuss some keyideas relating to the ways in which students approach their learning.How do students approach their learning?There are a variety of models that explain the different ways in which students approachtheir learning, most reflecting different activities or strategies that students use and themotivations behind using them. The following is an example of one frameworkdeveloped by Richardson (1990) based on work by Ramsden and Entwistle (1981),which includes a questionnaire called the Approaches to Study Inventory.