Learning Patterns of Engineering Students in a Singapore Tertiary Education Context and the Implications for Continuing Education in the Field of Engineering

In 1997, Singapore implemented radical changes to its education curricula to foster deep, self-directed learning which were thought to be important for lifelong learning. The aim of this study was to establish if there was any evidence that Singapore tertiary students, having been through the revised curricula, had indeed developed desirable learning patterns for continuing education. The samples comprised polytechnic Engineering undergraduates from the Year 1 (N=638), Year 2 (N=616) and Year 3 (N=705) cohorts. The study also included a control sample of working adults (Professionals) (N=140) who had returned for continuing education. A mixed methods design was executed with a cross-sectional study using the 100-item English version of Vermunt's Inventory of Learning Styles, together with semi-structured group interviews. A flexible learning pattern was reported to be common among undergraduates. Besides that, a prove-yourself directed pattern was reported by first and third year students, while a passive-idealistic pattern was indicated by second year students. The other two patterns reported in each group were variations of the reproduction and undirected patterns. The meaning directed and application directed learning patterns were not clearly distinguishable among the undergraduates. Sub-scale scores related to deep processing and self regulation strategies were not significantly higher in the second and third years, while scores for stepwise (surface) processing and external regulation were not lower. There seemed to be insufficient evidence to indicate that the changes in the curricula by the Singapore Ministry of Education and the polytechnic were effective in fostering the desired learning patterns. Among the Professionals, the meaning and application directed learning patterns were more clearly distinguishable. Subscale scores related to the use of knowledge and vocation were significantly higher than for the undergraduates. Working adults appear to have a stronger conception that learning was for the useful application of knowledge, and were clearer in their motives to enhance their vocation through their studies compared with the undergraduates. This suggested that learning patterns could be modified if learning conceptions and motives could be changed. This study has extended the understanding of learning pattern development particularly in a Singapore context, and generally in the wider Asian context. Cultural and educational contexts appear to play a role in influencing students’ learning conceptions and motives which, in turn, shape their learning patterns. Interventions that superficially manipulate the learning environment have limited effect in changing learning patterns. To bring about desired changes, all four domains of a learner – learning conceptions, motives, regulation and processing strategies, need to be addressed. This remains a challenge for institutions of higher learning and has implications for educational policy, curricula design and delivery, instructional approaches, assessments and other factors that impact the learner and the learning environment

The adaptation, validation and application of a research instrument for investigating the relationships between students' perceptions of the learning context and students' learning patterns in post-secondary education of Hong Kong

This thesis is about quality in post-secondary education, with its main theme being the adaptation, validation and application of a quantitative instrument for investigating student learning. While different conceptions of educational quality have been proposed and various approaches to addressing the quality issues have been practiced, it is argued that to cope with the education reform and the expansion of post-secondary education in Hong Kong, the concept of quality as transformation should assume a more central role, and more attention should be paid to the student experience in general, and student learning in particular. Forming the basis for the empirical investigation of this thesis is the selection and adaptation of two instruments developed and validated in western higher education contexts, namely the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) and the Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS). These instruments are applied in the local response context of post-secondary education in Hong Kong. The platform of study comprised six member schools of the Caritas Community and Higher Education Service (CCHES), from which student feedback was collected on a wide range of personological and contextual observables for the validation of a composite research instrument adapted from the CEQ and the ILS, and for the initial exploration of systematic relationships among the relevant observables. Findings are that, although cultural effects manifested in their adaptation for post-secondary education in Hong Kong, the CEQ and the ILS, with further revision of some scales, should be able to serve as a basis for the design of an instrument for effective collection of students’ perceptions of their learning environment and students' learning patterns in this new response context. Apart from some phenomena that need further investigation, the initial exploration of systematic relationships among the relevant observables found many results similar to those reported in other published work, in particular the central role assumed by regulation strategies among the ILS components

Personal Epistemology and its Influence on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Two case studies – Psychology and Sports Health and Exercise Science (SHES), investigated the influence of personal epistemology on teaching and learning in a higher education context. The investigation used the concept of a socialised habitus of academic personal epistemologies (SHAPE) on which to base the studies contained within the thesis. The theoretical underpinnings of SHAPE can be found in the work conducted on social practice theory (SPT), which includes Bourdieu (2000), Foucault (1984), Reckwitz (2002); and which draws on situated learning theory, activity systems theory, actor network theory, social learning theory (e.g. Bandura, 1977; Lave, 1988; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Vygotsky, 1978) as discussed in Trowler (2012). In addition, SHAPE draws on the work of Bourdieu (1977) and his theory of habitus; and the burgeoning research into personal epistemology (epistemological beliefs is also used in the literature before this term, so they will be used interchangeably). This branch of research began with the seminal work of William Perry culminating in his text entitled ‘Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years: A scheme’ (1970). The research was underpinned by an instrumentalist ethos (Dewey, 1930) and adopted a mixed methods research design. Phase One of the research process began with the confirmation of the reliability and validity of a quantitative measure of personal epistemology – The Discipline-focused Epistemological Belief Questionnaire (DEBQ, Hofer, 2000). In Phase One and Two, a shortened, more robust revised version of the DEBQ was then used to test for differences between participants at the group level in different modules of study, and for changes in personal epistemology over the duration of a semester of study. The Approaches to Teaching Inventory (Trigwell & Prosser, 2004) was used in both case studies, as was the DEBQ. The Approaches to Study Skills Inventory for Students (Entwistle, Tait & McCune, 2000) was used in the Psychology Case Study, which also included qualitative data captured via a series of interviews with fourteen students and two teachers from two psychology undergraduate year two modules; and a focus group involving three of the students who had participated in the interview phase. The different phases and methods of data collection allowed the author to make comparisons between the perceptions of, and approaches to, teaching and learning in the two case studies. 3 The analyses in Phase One resulted in a revised, abbreviated version of the DEBQ. The results from all four phases of the investigation suggest the utility of SHAPE as a concept on which to base future research. The findings from this series of studies suggest the personal epistemology of the teacher has the most profound effect on their students’ personal epistemologies as a group over a semester of study, whilst also recognising the contribution other elements of the teaching and learning context make. Variation within groups of students was also evident for dimensions of personal epistemology, and this influenced their perceptions of teaching, learning, and assessment; and how they approached their studies. The conclusions to be drawn are: SHAPE is a useful addition to the ‘tribes and territories’ (Trowler & Becher, 2001) discipline level of analysis and is a more nuanced, contextual unit of analysis as recognised and recommended in the text entitled ‘Tribes and Territories in the 21st Century: Rethinking the significance of disciplines in higher education’ (Trowler, Saunders & Bamber, 2012). The strength of SHAPE lies in its recognition of the epistemological, ontological, and axiological influences on the processes of teaching, learning, and assessment within a higher education context. As such, SHAPE has the potential to make a useful contribution in the changing horizon of higher education manifest in the modular, semester based curriculum, and the burgeoning of ‘interdisciplinarity’ and its challenge to the established academic disciplinary fields