The research described in Student Learning and Academic Understanding had its origins in the pioneering work of Ausubel, Bruner, and McKeachie and followed two complementary lines of development. The first line extended the ideas of Marton on approaches to learning through an inventory designed to assess these approaches among large samples of students and using in-depth interviews with students about their experiences of academic understanding. The second line drew on a range of studies to explore the influences of university teaching and the whole teaching–learning environment on the quality of student learning. Taking the research as a whole shows the value of complementary research approaches to describing student learning, while the findings brought together in the final chapter suggest ways of supporting deep approaches and the development of personal academic understanding among students.
Student Learning and Academic Understanding covers a wide range of concepts that have emerged from interviews in which students use their own experiences to describe how they study and what they find most useful in developing an academic understanding of their own. These concepts differ from the traditional psychological concepts by being focused on the specific contexts of university and college, although they are also relevant to the later stages of school education.
1. Part 1: Introduction - p. x 2. Chapter 1: Researching Student Learning - p. x 3. Chapter 2: Evolving Ideas About Human Learning - p. 11 4. Part 2: Student Learning and Studying - p. 26 5. Chapter 3: Predicting Academic Performance at University - p. 26 6. Chapter 4: Learning From the Student’s Perspective - p. 43 7. Chapter 5: Approaches to Learning in Everyday Studying - p. 63 8. Chapter 6: Measuring Approaches to Learning and Studying - p. 78 9. Part 3: The Nature of Academic Understanding - p. 106 10. Chapter 7: Experiences of Personal Academic Understanding - p. 106 11. Chapter 8: Thinking Processes in Academic Understanding - p. 135 12. Chapter 9: Disciplinary Ways of Thinking - p. 156 13. Part 4: Influences on Academic Understanding - p. 172 14. Chapter 10: Research Into University Teaching - p. 172 15. Chapter 11: Effects of Teaching–Learning Environments on Student Learning - p. 197 16. Part 5: Integrative Overview - p. 233 17. Chapter 12: Student Learning, Understanding, and Implications for Teaching - p. 233 18. Appendices A: Inventories and Their Development - p. 268 19. Appendix A1: Issues Relating to Designing and Revising Approaches to Studying Inventories - p. 268 20. Appendix A2: Short Revised Experiences of Teaching and Learning Questionnaire - p. 277 21. Appendix A3: Full Heuristic Model of Influences on Student Learning - p. 287 22. Appendices B: Extracts From Related Material - p. 289 23. Appendix B1: Complementary Paradigms for Research and Development Work in Higher Education - p. 293 24. Appendix B2: Contrasting Research Methods and Methodologies - p. 300 25. Appendix B3: What Does it Take to Learn? - p. 305 26. Appendix B4: “Ideas Made Personal”: Visualising and Explaining Understanding Through Dialogical Concept Mapping - p. 317 27. Appendix B5: Words and Deeds: A Psychological Perspective on the Active Nature of Learning and Understanding in Higher Education - p. 326 28. Appendix B6: Deriving a Theory of Academic Understanding From a Common Entailment of Metaphors: Food for Thought - p. 333 29. Appendix B7: Academic Language and the Nature of Understanding - p. 347 30. Appendix B8: Reflecting on the Nature of Academic Understanding - p. 353 31. References - p. 359 32. Author index - p. 375 33. Subject Index - p. 380
The research described in Student Learning and Academic Understanding had its origins in the pioneering work of Ausubel, Bruner, and McKeachie and followed two complementary lines of development. The first line extended the ideas of Marton on approaches to learning through an inventory designed to assess these approaches among large samples of students and using in-depth interviews with students about their experiences of academic understanding. The second line drew on a range of studies to explore the influences of university teaching and the whole teaching–learning environment on the quality of student learning. Taking the research as a whole shows the value of complementary research approaches to describing student learning, while the findings brought together in the final chapter suggest ways of supporting deep approaches and the development of personal academic understanding among students.
Student Learning and Academic Understanding covers a wide range of concepts that have emerged from interviews in which students use their own experiences to describe how they study and what they find most useful in developing an academic understanding of their own. These concepts differ from the traditional psychological concepts by being focused on the specific contexts of university and college, although they are also relevant to the later stages of school education.
1. Part 1: Introduction - p. x 2. Chapter 1: Researching Student Learning - p. x 3. Chapter 2: Evolving Ideas About Human Learning - p. 11 4. Part 2: Student Learning and Studying - p. 26 5. Chapter 3: Predicting Academic Performance at University - p. 26 6. Chapter 4: Learning From the Student’s Perspective - p. 43 7. Chapter 5: Approaches to Learning in Everyday Studying - p. 63 8. Chapter 6: Measuring Approaches to Learning and Studying - p. 78 9. Part 3: The Nature of Academic Understanding - p. 106 10. Chapter 7: Experiences of Personal Academic Understanding - p. 106 11. Chapter 8: Thinking Processes in Academic Understanding - p. 135 12. Chapter 9: Disciplinary Ways of Thinking - p. 156 13. Part 4: Influences on Academic Understanding - p. 172 14. Chapter 10: Research Into University Teaching - p. 172 15. Chapter 11: Effects of Teaching–Learning Environments on Student Learning - p. 197 16. Part 5: Integrative Overview - p. 233 17. Chapter 12: Student Learning, Understanding, and Implications for Teaching - p. 233 18. Appendices A: Inventories and Their Development - p. 268 19. Appendix A1: Issues Relating to Designing and Revising Approaches to Studying Inventories - p. 268 20. Appendix A2: Short Revised Experiences of Teaching and Learning Questionnaire - p. 277 21. Appendix A3: Full Heuristic Model of Influences on Student Learning - p. 287 22. Appendices B: Extracts From Related Material - p. 289 23. Appendix B1: Complementary Paradigms for Research and Development Work in Higher Education - p. 293 24. Appendix B2: Contrasting Research Methods and Methodologies - p. 300 25. Appendix B3: What Does it Take to Learn? - p. 305 26. Appendix B4: “Ideas Made Personal”: Visualising and Explaining Understanding Through Dialogical Concept Mapping - p. 317 27. Appendix B5: Words and Deeds: A Psychological Perspective on the Active Nature of Learning and Understanding in Higher Education - p. 326 28. Appendix B6: Deriving a Theory of Academic Understanding From a Common Entailment of Metaphors: Food for Thought - p. 333 29. Appendix B7: Academic Language and the Nature of Understanding - p. 347 30. Appendix B8: Reflecting on the Nature of Academic Understanding - p. 353 31. References - p. 359 32. Author index - p. 375 33. Subject Index - p. 380
