Barry Jackson (b.jackson@mdx.ac.uk)
Wed, 10 Feb 1999 07:23:19 +0000 (GMT)
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 07:23:19 +0000 (GMT) From: Barry Jackson <b.jackson@mdx.ac.uk> Subject: Re: "Learning Strategies Then and Now: Same or Different?"
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In response to my post Philip Duchastel wrote:
>
>I think that perhaps it is because it (Approaches to Learning frameworks)
>remains fuzzy - that is, difficult to
>operationalize. Godron Pask's thinking on serialist-wholist approaches
>suffered
>also from this. The Marton line of thinking is certainly appealing and I think
>most of us would believe in it intuitively. However, it remains hard to
>distinguish between the categories. What is deep, not so deep, surface,
>close to
>surface, etc...? It seems to point to something, but something that has
>not been
>quite described in the right way yet. Just some thoughts...
I've certainly found it reasonably easy to operationalise, and each year at
the Improving Student Learning Symposia in the UK there are several reports
of practiotioner/researchers finding it useful. It's certainly a bit more
difficult than using Learning Style Inventories, but not much. The
categories are reasonably clear in my mind, and there is a good body of
helpful work across many disciplines which provides clarification through
exemplars.
One of the key issues is that since an approach to learning describes an
intention and an activity, rather than a personality construct, it can be
affected powerfully by the context in which learning takes place - and it
is possible to identlify practices which are likely to lead to deep or
surface approaches. Research evidence suggests that the level of learning
outcome which a student achieves in a particular learning context will be
strongly correlated with the approach to learning they take in that context.
Much useful work is reported in the proceedings of the annual ISL Symposia,
1995 to date.
regards
Barry
Professor Barry Jackson
Director of Learning Development
Centre for Learning Development
Middlesex University
Bounds Green Road
London N11 2 NQ
tel: 0181 362 5018
fax: 0181 362 5045
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