the influence of learning environment on student conceptions of learning

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The influence of learning environmenton student conceptions of learningPeter J. Smith a & Damian Blake aa Faculty of Arts and Education , Deakin University , AustraliaPublished online: 21 Sep 2009.

To cite this article: Peter J. Smith & Damian Blake (2009) The influence of learning environmenton student conceptions of learning, Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 61:3, 231-246, DOI:10.1080/13636820902996517

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Journal of Vocational Education and TrainingVol. 61, No. 3, September 2009, 231–246

ISSN 1363-6820 print/ISSN 1747-5090 online© 2009 The Vocational Aspect of Education LtdDOI: 10.1080/13636820902996517http://www.informaworld.com

The influence of learning environment on student conceptionsof learning

Peter J. Smith* and Damian Blake

Faculty of Arts and Education Deakin University, AustraliaTaylor and FrancisRJVE_A_399823.sgm(Received 7 April 2008; final version received 17 April 2009)10.1080/13636820902996517Journal of Vocational Education and Training0729-4360 (print)/1469-8366 (online)Original Article2009Taylor & Francis613000000September 2009Dr [email protected]

Responding to the increasing numbers of students who now study across more thanone of the traditional sectors of education and training, this research exploredquantitative differences in conceptions of learning between students who hadentered university study on the basis of a VET qualification, and those who hadentered on a basis of previous university studies. Using the Conceptions of LearningInventory the research also used gender as an independent variable. While somedifferences were shown between the previously-VET and previously-universitystudents and some differences between genders these differences were characterisedby low to moderate effect sizes only. The authors conclude that the quantitativedifferences are not particularly important, but that qualitative research may indicatedifferences in kind between the conceptions of learning of the two groups.

Keywords: conceptions of learning; vocational education; technical and furthereducation (TAFE); gender

Introduction and context

Post-secondary education in Australia, along with much of the rest of the planet, isundergoing significant change and re-alignment between the sectors. Over the pastcouple of decades post-secondary education has been represented by three identifiableformal education sectors: the adult and community education (ACE) sector; the voca-tional education and training (VET sector), strongly represented by the publiclyfunded Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutions; and the universitysector. In this paper we will be focussing on two of these sectors – VET and university.

The focus on these two sectors is the result of a considerable blurring of the bound-aries between the sectors expressed in a number of different ways. While it was orig-inally developed to provide sub-degree VET at Certificate and Diploma levels, anumber of the TAFE institutes are now offering vocational degrees at the Bachelor,Graduate Certificate, and Graduate Diploma levels – previously the province of thehigher education university sector. The vocational degrees in TAFE institutes do notadopt a competency approach to assessment. A second form of ‘blurring’ is occurringwith the movement of students between the sectors. Harris, Rainey and Sumner (2006)have provided evidence that movement between the sectors has been a feature ofpolicy at legislative level for some years; they also provide evidence that the transferis frequently made between the sectors by individual students. That movement is bothways. University graduates access the VET sector for further vocational related

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

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232 P.J. Smith and D. Blake

learning and certification, and VET students move into university courses withvarying amounts of credit towards their degrees.

A student moving from a VET to a university course may be motivated by anynumber of factors in the Australian context. First, studying in the public TAFE insti-tutes is usually considerably cheaper than in a university; students who can completepart of their work in TAFE and then move to university with academic credits willmost likely save money. Second, a student who doesn’t win a place on merit at univer-sity in the first instance can more easily obtain a place in TAFE and then move touniversity on the basis of a successful TAFE outcome. A further reason in a vast coun-try like Australia can be geographic, where students can enrol initially in a local VETprovider and then move towards a more distant university at a later stage, takingacademic credits with them. There is evidence to suggest that this VET to universitypathway is more important for rural and regional students in Australia (Teese, Clarke,and Polesel 2007), who use this pathway at a higher rate than city-based students.Finally, there are reasons associated with development, where a student initially seestheir desired career being the result of a VET course but subsequently changes interesttowards something that requires a university outcome. There are, of course, otherreasons for transfer that will be more individually held.

As a result of the interest in these VET to university transfers the development andpublication of formal pathways to facilitate the move has become commonplace. AGoogle search of ‘TAFE to university pathways’ will yield a large number of websitesdetailing different Australian State arrangements, or detailing individual institutionalarrangements. Watson (2007, 14) reported that between 2001 and 2005 ‘…the numberof students admitted to university on the basis of a VET award increased by 46percent’ and that 10 % of university students now have come from VET.

There are major differences between the university and the VET sectors in theirpedagogy and assessment, and it is the experience of students as they engage thischange that interests us in this paper. The VET sector is competency based in termsof the organisation of pedagogy and assessment is competency based as well. Instruc-tion is organised around ‘training packages’, which are developed in conjunction withthe relevant industry sector, and which specify the competencies to be achieved ateach qualification level in preparation for the given occupation. Students are assessedas ‘competent’ or as ‘not yet competent’, and learning in and from workplaces is animportant component of the training experience, and assessment in the workplace isalso common. Universities, on the other hand, generally provide a broader curriculumthat is developed in conjunction with relevant industry (and in some cases needs theaccreditation of the relevant professional body), but is not closely specified as a set ofcompetencies to be reached. Assessment is more likely to contain theoreticalcomponents as well as practice components, and is typically graded rather than utilis-ing the binary competent/not yet competent system of the VET sector. Assessment inuniversities is also more typically normative than criterion referenced.

Conceptions of learning

With regard to learning intents and expected outcomes, Marton and Booth have arguedthat if we wish to understand learning, we must put the learner’s ‘experience of aphenomenon into a context of, and in relation with experience of other phenomenon’(1996, 538). Lai and Chan put this nicely when they wrote ‘Conceptions of learningrefer to the beliefs and understanding held by learners about learning’ (2005, 3).

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Journal of Vocational Education and Training 233

There is evidence from qualitative case study-based research (Blake and Smith2007) with VET students who are also still enrolled at secondary school level that theyencounter different conceptions of learning as they move between school and work-places and TAFE institutes. In this present paper we extend that research to exploredifferences that students bring with them as they move along a pathway from a TAFEexperience to a university one.

There is evidence that exposure to learning contexts impacts on the conceptions oflearning held by students (Eklund-Myrskog 1996, 1998). It is on that basis that wehave developed our hypothesis that the students from the TAFE backgrounds willexhibit some different conceptions of learning than those who have come to their newuniversity course from a previous university course experience. Our current researchis designed to explore whether there are differences in the degrees to which studentshold their different conceptions of learning (a quantitative study), and whether thereare differences in the ways they talk about their experiences of different conceptionsof learning in TAFE and university contexts (a qualitative study).

The Blake and Smith (2007) research used a framework of conceptions of learn-ing developed by Marton, Dall’Alba, and Beaty (1993). Those workers identified sixhierarchically related conceptions of learning: (1) Learning as increasing one’sknowledge – the consumption of already existing information; (2) Learning as memo-rising and reproducing – for a purpose such as a test; (3) Learning as applying, wherethe learner applies what is learned as the need arises – such as driving skills ormanual tasks; (4) Learning as understanding and the abstraction of meaning – devel-oping meaning from learning, developing a point of view; (5) Learning as seeingsomething in a different way, an interpretative process aiming at understanding real-ity; (6) Learning is ‘changing as a person’. The research explored what students hadidentified as the learning orientation they were asked to pursue in the school setting,and in the workplace/TAFE setting. The results indicated that for each of the Marton,Dall’Alba, and Beaty (1993) conceptions there were differences between the twosettings in how much each conception was valued. As a brief summary, students sawthat the workplace/TAFE learning settings were more self-directed and the learningintents were more related to applications of knowledge rather than to conceptuallearning and abstraction.

Fuller (1999) suggested that learners do not hold only one conception of learning,but that they hold multiple conceptions, perhaps in different relative ‘strengths’, andthat the relative strengths might change in response to different learning situations.Consistent with that view, and identifying and measuring a number of conceptions oflearning, is the quantitatively-based Conceptions of Learning Inventory (COLI) ques-tionnaire developed by Purdie and Hattie (2002). That questionnaire was developedthrough their research with a number of different learner and ethnic groups in Austra-lian high schools and has been subjected to a rigorous set of psychometric processesto yield a final 32-item instrument with technical data support. The COLI measuressix identified conceptions of learning for each individual learner:

● Learning as gaining information● Learning as remembering, using and understanding information● Learning as a duty● Learning as personal change● Learning as a process not bound by time or place● Learning as the development of social competence

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In the present research we are interested in how students differ as a function of beingsocialised to different conceptions of learning through their exposure to VET or touniversity pedagogy and assessment. There is evidence that the conceptions of learn-ing held by individual students are at least a partial result of the conceptions to whichthey have been exposed. For example, Eklund-Myrskog (1996), using the Marton,Dall’Alba, and Beaty (1993) conceptions of learning, showed that, among teachereducation students in Sweden, there was evidence that students had been socialisedinto some common conceptions of learning but that, at the same time, students inde-pendently selected conceptions of learning that they believed suited the context andtheir learning intent. The study by Eklund-Myrskog (1996) also indicated students canadapt and develop their conceptions of learning to meet new contexts and newdemands. A study by Burnett, Pillay, and Dart (2003) showed that high schoolstudents who adopted a deep approach liked learning new things and displayed aconception of learning as personal development, and a conception of instruction asexperiential involving social interaction. Importantly, the authors suggest that teacherscan develop practices to assist students to move towards those conceptions and toview learning as personal development. A later literature review by Eklund-Myrskog(1998) also suggests that students’ conceptions of learning are influenced by learningcontext, such that the relative strengths with which different conception are held canvary within individuals at different times.

Lindberg (2003) has explored the notion of vocational knowing and vocationaleducation in schools, as a source of tension. Her findings suggest that ‘vocationalknowing’ is situated judgement that consists of a language that is appropriate to thevocation, and that tacit knowledge connects these. She contrasts this with ‘knowing inschool’ that is described as developing the capacities to learn in different contexts.Similarly, Harris et al. (1998) have pointed to different orientations towards learningthat occur between apprentices, their VET teachers, and their employers. Employerstended to have a behaviourist conception that was largely interested in performanceon the job, teachers were more characterised by a humanistic orientation that wasinterested in personal development for the apprentice as well as skills development,while the apprentices tended towards a cognitive view that was interested in theprocesses through which they learned. Dalton and Smith (2004) also noted the signif-icant pedagogical and epistemological challenges to secondary school teachers whohave become involved in teaching VET subjects.

In their review of the introduction of competency based training to VET in theNetherlands, Biemans et al. (2004) indirectly point to the challenge to some concep-tions of learning that are framed around a focus understanding and reflective practice.The challenge here can be, as they point out, particularly difficult in environmentswhere CBT is seen as the unquestioned acquisition of knowledge to be reproduced todemonstrate competence, or to be applied in narrowly defined situations. In theAustralian VET context, Foley and Smith (2002) noted the same tension as teachersmoved from a curriculum approach to a training package approach.

The available literature was sufficient to suggest to us that it is reasonable toexpect there may be different conceptions of learning held by different cohorts ofstudents as a partial result of previous education or training experience. The pragmaticvalue of this research lies in the increasing boundary blurring that we have discussedabove. As learners and their teachers are exposed to the different sectors there is aneed to develop cross-sectoral understanding of what learning can mean if we are toavoid confusion in expected learning outcomes and learning experiences.

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We also investigated gender as an independent variable since there is somesuggestion in the literature that male and female conceptions of learning may havesome differences. For example, Meit et al. (2007), in their longitudinal study of overtwo thousand medical students, found that females were more dutiful and perseveringin their studies, more self-disciplined and more likely to be self-doubting. Smith andMiller (2005) also provided evidence that female students accept their learning and itstasks more as a form of duty than do their male counterparts.

Method

The present paper reports on a quantitative study using Purdie and Hattie’s (2002)Conceptions of Learning Inventory (COLI) questionnaire. The COLI is a well-developed instrument using Likert scale responses. Responses to individual questionsare summed to provide a score on each of the six scales. Our research also generatedqualitative data derived from semi-structured interviews with 20 students who hadpreviously studied TAFE courses and six of their lecturers in the two universitycourses. Because all of our previously-VET participants actually came from TAFEinstitutes, from here on we will refer to them as ‘previously-TAFE’.

A total of one hundred and thirty seven students participated in the quantitativeaspect of the study, with 20 of the previously-TAFE students being invited to partici-pate in interviews. The students were drawn from two courses of study at an Australianuniversity. The first was a graduate course in teacher education where there was entryavailable on the basis of previous university undergraduate course completion or on abasis of previous VET course completion. The second course was a bachelor’s degreein early childhood education where students entered the course on the basis of asuccessful completion of a children’s services course in the VET sector. In all casesthe VET qualifications previously completed were at sub-degree level, with learningframed around competency statements and assessment also competency based.

For the quantitative component of the research the students were tested with theCOLI in the first year of their enrolment in their university course in order to reducethe convergent effect in their conceptions of learning that might be expected as theyshared a common learning context over time. Because we needed to negotiate accessto these students at different times we were not able to control how far into that yearthey were at the time of testing. Accordingly, some were tested in their first semesterwhile others were not tested until the beginning of their second semester.

The semi-structured interviews were conducted after the students had completedthe COLI. During the interviews students were asked to discuss:

● differences between their TAFE and university experiences in the way learningis conceived;

● which ‘ways of thinking about learning’ are most valued in the TAFE anduniversity settings;

● differences in approaches to assessment they have experienced between TAFEand university and any challenges brought about by these differences;

● any development as a learner experienced in the transition from TAFE touniversity;

● any advice they would offer for other students making the same transition.

In the interviews with the course lecturers they were asked to discuss these aspects oftheir previously-TAFE students’ transition from TAFE to university.

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The interviews were audio-recorded and the data transcribed to text to assist anal-ysis. The researchers looked for patterns and themes emerging across the partici-pants’ responses to each of the discussion areas, with particular attention being givento the ways students and lecturers were talking about different conceptions of learn-ing.

The mean age of respondents to the COLI was 30.67 years with a standard devi-ation of 9.39 years and a range from 20 years to 55. The distribution of gender andentry basis either through previous TAFE or university experience is shown inTable 1.

Ethics clearance for the study was provided by Deakin University Research EthicsCommittee. For the quantitative component of the study, students were approached inregular classes and invited to fill out the COLI on a voluntary basis and return thecompleted questionnaire to an anonymous box. In that way any sense of coercion toparticipate was removed since the researchers did not know who had responded to thequestionnaire and who had not.

Results

Quantitative Results

The data from the COLI provided a measure for each participant on each of theconceptions. These scores were compared using a two-way between groups analysisof variance applied to each of the six COLI scales as the dependent variable in eachcase, and with gender and TAFE or university prior experience as the two independentvariables.

The COLI poses participants 32 questions they respond to through a six pointLikert scale of ‘Very strongly disagree’ to ‘Very strongly agree’. Scores on each ofthe COLI scales are calculated by summing the Likert scores on each of the itemsassigned to the scale.

In the tables below we have used the same abbreviations for each of the COLIscales as were developed by Purdie and Hattie (2002):

● Learning as gaining information – abbreviated as INFO. This scale contains 5questions, giving a minimum score of 5 and a maximum of 30. The questionsasked in this scale are about the learning of new factual information.

● Learning as remembering, using and understanding information – abbreviatedas RUU. This scale contains 9 questions, giving a minimum score of 9 and amaximum of 54. The questions asked in this scale are about rememberinginformation and recalling it to apply it when needed.

● Learning as a duty – abbreviated as DUTY. This scale contains 3 questions,giving a minimum score of 3 and a maximum of 18. This scale asks questions

Table 1. Distribution of COLI respondents by gender and previous TAFE or universityexperience.

Male Female Total

Previously-TAFE 9 44 53Previously university 27 57 84Total 36 101 137

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to do with the need to keep on with learning and studying irrespective of thedifficulties encountered.

● Learning as personal change – abbreviated as PERS. This scale contains 8 ques-tions, giving a minimum score of 8 and a maximum of 48. The questions hereare about learning contributing to seeing things in life in new or better ways, andcontributing to self-development.

● Learning as a process not bound by time or place – abbreviated as PROC. Thisscale contains 3 questions, giving a minimum score of 3 and a maximum of 18.These questions are focussed on issues of learning through daily experience andlearning as part of life.

● Learning as the development of social competence – abbreviated as SOC. Thisscale contains 4 questions, giving a minimum score of 4 and a maximum of 24.These questions are about understanding others, developing good relationshipsand contributing to common sense.

The ANOVA results for each COLI scale are shown in Tables 2 to 7 below.The non-significant results for main effects and for the interaction, shown in Table

2, indicate that the conception of learning as gaining information was not influencedby gender, by whether there was previous TAFE or university experience, and neitherwas there interaction between those two independent variables.

Results at Table 3 indicate that the conception of learning as remembering, usingand understanding information was not influenced by gender, by previous TAFE oruniversity experience, and neither was there interaction between those two indepen-dent variables.

Table 4 results indicate that females held a stronger conception of learning as a dutythan did males. The mean score for females was 12.39 as opposed to 11.86 for males.The gender difference is only weakly significant at p<.10, and the effect size is small(Pallant 2007). The interaction indicated that the difference between the genders wasentirely among the students who had previously studied in TAFE, and that amongpreviously university students there was no difference. This difference was that previ-ously-TAFE females had a significantly higher score than previously-TAFE males, but

Table 3. ANOVA results for the learning as remembering, using and understandinginformation scale.

RUU df F sig effect size

Gender (G) 1,133 1.47 ns .011TAFE/Univ (TU) 1,133 1.41 ns .010GxTU 1,133 0.28 ns .002

df – degrees of freedomF – F ratiosig. – level of statistical significance

Table 2. ANOVA results for the learning as gaining information scale.

INFO df F sig effect size

Gender (G) 1,133 1.24 ns .009TAFE/Univ (TU) 1,133 1.01 ns .008GxTU 1,133 1.48 ns .011

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for previously university students there was no such gender difference. Because of theweak level of significance and small effect size we have not shown the interaction ingraphical form in this paper.

Table 5 indicates that students from the previously-TAFE cohort held a signifi-cantly higher level of learning as personal change (mean 39.15) than did the previ-ously-university cohort (mean 37.23). While the result is statistically significant, againthe effect size is quite small.

Table 6 indicates that females held a weakly significant higher level (mean 15.69)of a conception of learning as a process not bound by time or place than did males(mean 14.83), with a weak effect size. Previously-TAFE students also had a higherlevel of that conception of learning (mean 16.08) than did previously-universitystudents (mean 15.08), with a small effect size.

Table 7 indicates females had a higher level of the learning as the development ofsocial competence conception (mean 17.63) than did males (mean 16.36), with arelatively small effect size.

Table 4. ANOVA results for the learning as a duty scale.

DUTY df F sig effect size

Gender (G) 1,133 3.07 <.10 .023TAFE/Univ (TU) 1,133 0.20 ns .000GxTU 1,133 3.10 <.10 .023

Table 7. ANOVA results for the learning as the development of social competence scale.

SOC df F sig effect size

Gender (G) 1,133 6.13 <.05 .044TAFE/Univ (TU) 1,133 0.98 ns .007GxTU 1,133 2.43 ns .018

df – degrees of freedomF – F ratiosig. – level of statistical significance

Table 6. ANOVA results for the learning as a process not bound by time or place scale.

PROC df F sig effect size

Gender (G) 1,133 2.81 <.10 .021TAFE/Univ (TU) 1,133 5.16 <.05 .037GxTU 1,133 0.14 ns .000

Table 5. ANOVA results for the learning as personal change scale.

PERS df F sig effect size

Gender (G) 1,133 0.001 ns .000TAFE/Univ (TU) 1,133 4.27 <.05 .031GxTU 1,133 0.69 ns .005

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Qualitative Results

Analysis of the semi-structured interviews with students and lecturers yielded concep-tions of learning that were more commensurate with those proposed by Marton,Dall’Alba and Beaty (1993) than they were to the conceptions identified by the COLI.That analysis of the interview data revealed several qualitative differences in the wayparticipants discussed conceptions of learning experienced at TAFE and university.These have been summarised in Table 8 below.

The researchers noted several other themes emerging from the semi-structuredinterviews with students and lecturers. In the first instance, the lecturers consideredthat previously-TAFE students required more assistance in writing for universityassessment tasks than other students. It was observed that their first essays oftenreflected good work-related literacy skills that would support reporting facts in a briefsummary style; however the lecturers noted that few previously-TAFE hadcommenced the course with the ability to write a well-structured and well-arguedessay. This is a task that also required the students to read more extensively than theyhad been used to. Several students also made this observation in their interviews,noting that one of the biggest challenges was to develop skills in writing academicessays and referencing ideas appropriately.

The need for the previously-TAFE students to become more independent as learn-ers also emerged in the interviews. Some lecturers noted that they would refer thestudents to the Study Skills support staff at the university and understood that this wasa very important support mechanism for previously-TAFE students to develop theirindependences as learners. Several students reported that they were aware of the needto develop these skills and were constantly seeking feedback from lecturers in thisregard. Although there were differences in the amount of additional study supportuniversity lecturers were willing to provide for the students, all considered it essentialthat the students develop an independent approach to their learning and viewed theirprevious attendance at TAFE as not adequately valuing this aspect of learning.

Previously-TAFE students frequently discussed a high degree of anxiousness theyexperienced at the very start of their university course because they were unsure ifthey could ‘bridge the gap’ they had been told by family, friends and lecturers toexpect between university and TAFE contexts. It appears the gap is not insurmount-able, however, and the students often referred to expressions such as ‘raising the bar’and other terms consistent with learning as personal development. The followingresponse from a student captures several of the themes expressed by the previously-TAFE students:

I was very nervous before starting the uni course because I always believed it would beso much more demanding than TAFE … I had always been told that the gap between uniand TAFE was enormous. What we learned in TAFE was much more black and whiteand often we would just take notes from a teacher … it was usually pretty easy tocomprehend. At uni we learn stuff that is often grey…not simply right or wrong. I wasafraid of struggling in class … and of all the extra reading, writing and the referencingfor uni. At uni you have to raise the bar … it challenges you to think about what you aresaying and what you have learnt – maybe it’s not always about the correct answer … ButI have been pleasantly surprised as there is much more support than even at TAFE andthe teachers are much more approachable than I thought they would be … I find theonline discussion really helpful when we are off campus and I use them a lot. I think I’vebeen able to make the adjustment and I know I have more confidence.

[Previously-TAFE male, 25 years old]

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Tabl

e 8.

Qua

lita

tive

diff

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in t

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and

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s di

scus

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.

Lea

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ic (

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) in

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rsit

y se

ttin

g.M

emor

isin

g an

d re

prod

ucin

gS

tude

nts:

•

TA

FE

exp

ecte

d m

uch

mor

e le

arni

ng a

s m

emor

isin

g an

d re

prod

ucin

g fo

r sp

ecif

ic s

itua

tion

s;•

this

con

cept

ion

of l

earn

ing

was

les

s va

lued

in

a un

iver

sity

con

text

, but

rem

aine

d an

im

port

ant

part

of

the

proc

ess.

Uni

vers

ity

Lec

ture

rs:

•m

emor

isin

g an

d re

prod

ucin

g no

t va

lued

as

muc

h as

‘hi

gher

ord

er’

lear

ning

ass

ocia

ted

wit

h cr

itic

al r

efle

ctio

n•

wer

e co

ncer

ned

that

pre

viou

sly-

TA

FE

stu

dent

s w

ould

nee

d to

ext

end

thei

r co

ncep

tion

of

lear

ning

‘be

yond

rem

embe

ring

fac

ts’.

App

lyin

gS

tude

nts:

•

did

not

expe

ct a

uni

vers

ity

cour

se t

o va

lue

this

con

cept

ion

of l

earn

ing

very

hig

hly

com

pare

d to

pre

viou

s ex

peri

ence

s in

TA

FE

se

ttin

gs;

•w

ere

disa

ppoi

nted

whe

n th

eir

own

prio

r ex

peri

ence

s w

ere

not

incl

uded

as

valu

able

ins

ight

s in

to u

nive

rsit

y le

arni

ng e

xper

ienc

es;

•re

port

ed b

eing

sur

pris

ed w

hen

they

exp

erie

nced

lea

rnin

g as

app

lyin

g in

the

ir u

nive

rsit

y co

urse

.U

nive

rsit

y L

ectu

rers

: •

lear

ning

thr

ough

app

lyin

g ex

pect

ed t

o be

an

impo

rtan

t pa

rt o

f un

iver

sity

cou

rses

;•

emph

asis

pla

ced

on w

ork-

base

d le

arni

ng d

urin

g pr

acti

cum

pla

cem

ents

, but

not

ed th

e im

port

ance

pla

ced

on c

hang

ing

or r

efor

min

g pr

acti

ce w

hile

als

o le

arni

ng f

rom

it;

•ex

pect

ed s

tude

nts

wou

ld d

evel

op t

he a

bili

ty t

o m

ove

betw

een

theo

ry a

nd p

ract

ice

as a

n im

port

ant

part

of

thei

r le

arni

ng i

n a

univ

ersi

ty s

etti

ng.

Und

erst

andi

ng

and

abst

ract

ion

of

mea

ning

Stu

dent

s:

•si

gnif

ican

tly

mor

e em

phas

is a

nd v

alue

pla

ced

on t

his

conc

epti

on o

f le

arni

ng i

n th

e un

iver

sity

con

text

;•

stud

ents

oft

en s

poke

cri

tica

lly

of t

heir

exp

erie

nces

in

TA

FE

set

ting

s by

ref

erri

ng t

o ‘a

lac

k th

eory

’ at

the

exp

ense

of

deve

lopi

ng

com

pete

ncie

s.U

nive

rsit

y L

ectu

rers

: •

expe

cted

tha

t th

e pr

evio

usly

-TA

FE

stu

dent

s w

ould

nee

d to

dev

elop

the

ir s

kill

s in

rel

atio

n to

thi

s co

ncep

tion

of

lear

ning

as

they

w

ere

conc

erne

d th

ey h

ad l

imit

ed e

xper

ienc

e of

it

in a

TA

FE

set

ting

.

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Tabl

e 8.

(Con

tinu

ed).

Lea

rnin

g as

…D

iffe

renc

es b

etw

een

TA

FE

and

uni

vers

ity

as e

xpre

ssed

in p

revi

ousl

y-T

AF

E s

tude

nts’

and

lect

urer

s’ s

emi-

stru

ctur

ed

inte

rvie

ws

Seei

ng

som

ethi

ng in

a

diff

eren

t w

ay

Stu

dent

s:

•a

very

sig

nifi

cant

par

t of

the

lea

rnin

g ex

peri

ence

in

univ

ersi

ty c

onte

xts;

•re

port

ed s

eein

g th

eir

wor

kpla

ce/p

ract

ice

diff

eren

tly

as a

con

sequ

ence

of

lear

ning

.U

nive

rsit

y L

ectu

rers

: •

seen

as

an i

mpo

rtan

t an

d va

luab

le c

once

ptio

n of

lea

rnin

g to

dev

elop

fro

m t

heir

uni

vers

ity

expe

rien

ce;

•no

ted

som

e pr

evio

usly

-TA

FE

stu

dent

s ha

d ch

ange

d th

eir

view

s ar

ound

pra

ctic

e as

a r

esul

t of

the

ir l

earn

ing

at u

nive

rsit

y.

Cha

ngin

g as

a

pers

on

Stu

dent

s •

seve

ral

stud

ents

not

ed t

heir

exp

erie

nce

as a

uni

vers

ity

stud

ent

invo

lved

cha

ngin

g as

a p

erso

n as

a c

onse

quen

ce o

f th

eir

lear

ning

an

d ch

ange

s to

the

way

the

y un

ders

tood

the

ir p

ract

ice;

•ch

angi

ng a

s a

pers

on i

nvol

ved

gain

ing

a hi

gher

deg

ree

of s

elf-

conf

iden

ce f

rom

exp

erie

ncin

g su

cces

sful

lea

rnin

g in

a u

nive

rsit

y co

ntex

t.U

nive

rsit

y L

ectu

rers

: •

a hi

gh d

egre

e of

var

iabi

lity

for

thi

s ty

pe o

f le

arni

ng t

o oc

cur

as i

t w

as d

epen

dent

on

the

indi

vidu

al s

tude

nts’

per

sona

liti

es a

nd

situ

atio

ns.

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Discussion

Looking across all the results from this study would indicate that students coming intouniversity on the basis of their previous VET experience do not hold particularlydifferent conceptions of learning from those whose previous experience has been atuniversity. That is consistent with earlier finding by Smith (2001) who showed thatthere were few differences between TAFE and university students in their learningpreferences, even though their pedagogical experiences had been quite different. It isalso an encouraging finding for practice, since the potential difficulties we envisagedfor students who are ‘crossing boundaries’ appear to be less insurmountable that mighthave otherwise been expected.

We just need to be a little careful with that finding insofar as our study here hasbeen limited in number, to one measurement instrument, and two groups of studentswho have both eventually joined together in university. It is possible that TAFEstudents who do cross the boundary into a degree program at university are a groupwho consider the move achievable, and who feel capable in tackling the differentlearning environment. We would prefer to do some further research comparing someother groups who are subjected to boundary crossing before we become too convincedthat the result from this study is representative of most boundary crossing.

One major difference between the students in this study and many who are inmultiple learning environments is that our participants on this occasion have all madethe crossing voluntarily – they were all enrolled in their university course because theyhad chosen to pursue further study in that environment. There are other students, mostparticularly VET in Schools students, for whom participation in the different environ-ments is a compulsory part of the experience. The earlier Blake and Smith (2007)research, which did note some differences between the conceptions of learning typi-cally noted by students in different learning environments was focussed on VET inSchools students for whom school, TAFE and workplace learning were each acompulsory part of their program. However, the Blake and Smith study also identifiedthat students noted these differences, but did not examine the conceptions of learningheld by the students themselves.

A further need to be cautious with our results is that we tested half of our studentsin their first semester of enrolment in their university course, and half in their secondsemester. In his 1998 study Eklund-Myrskog found that exposure to learning contextinfluenced student conceptions of learning. In the same way as our study was designedto test the influence of previous learning context on conception of learning, it can beexpected that the current learning context also had an influence, with that influencebeing greater for those we tested in their second semester.

The current research has shown some results that are worth noting and discussingbriefly here, even though they are not claimed as strong and robust. However, in apaper that is starting to explore a relatively new set of issues relating to the blurringof boundaries, it is worth giving them some attention.

Focussing first on differences between previously-TAFE and previously universitystudents, we have shown:

● For learning as a duty previously-TAFE females had a significantly higher scorethan previously-TAFE males, but for previously university students there wasno such gender difference;

● For learning as personal change the previously-TAFE cohort scored higher thanthe previously university cohort;

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● For the learning as a process not bound by time or space scale the previously-TAFE students scored higher than the other group.

The findings on these last two scales are particularly interesting in that they indicatethat the previously-TAFE students have a broad view of learning that includes itsimpact on them as people and a notion that learning is a part of ongoing life. Comingoff a learning experience in TAFE that is understood to be more focussed on thedevelopment of vocational competencies to be applied to the workplace, these areinteresting findings indeed. The findings on these two scales also have a consistencyand coherence with each other. One partial explanation for these findings is that theconnectedness of TAFE studies to the workplace provides a stronger integration ofwork, learning and life than studies largely undertaken within the walls of academia.A second explanation may be associated with the students themselves, in that peoplewho have those broader conceptions of learning are more likely to be those whomigrate from one educational sector to another to further their education and trainingin a new environment.

The finding that females from TAFE backgrounds have a stronger conception oflearning as a duty we suggest may be similar to findings by Meit et al. (2007). In theirlongitudinal study of over two thousand medical students they found that femaleswere more dutiful and persevering in their studies, more self-disciplined and morelikely to be self-doubting. Smith and Miller (2005) also provided evidence that femalestudents accept their learning and its tasks more as a form of duty than do their malecounterparts. It is not uncommon in the literature for research to show female studentsto be more characterised by fear of failure than males (e.g. Richardson, Morgan, andWoodley 1999). We are not able to provide any ready explanation of why our findingwas associated only with the females from TAFE backgrounds, but it is possible thatthe high representation of females from the children’s services area may have hadsome impact on the result for the duty scale.

The findings related to gender can be summarised as:

● The higher TAFE female scores on the learning as a duty scale have beendiscussed above in the context of previous TAFE or university experience;

● Females scored higher than males on the learning as a process not bound by timeor space scale;

● Females scored higher than males on the learning as the development of socialcompetence scale.

The latter two findings, taken together, indicate that females in our study have devel-oped conceptions of learning that are more strongly (than the males) integrated intotheir lives such that learning occurs in a wide range of circumstances, and has impactson their development as people. There is some evidence for this from Eklund-Myrskog’s 1998 study with car mechanic and nursing students. Additionally, while inthis study we have not tested studying approaches, Meyer, Dunne, and Richardson(1994) have shown that where females do use a deep approach they are more likely tolook for personal meaning and connections in their learning, while other research bySeveriens and Ten Dam (1994) indicates that males have a greater affinity for learningthat is impersonal and external to themselves.

From the qualitative data it is apparent that both students and lecturers exhibit ahierarchy of values placed on the different conceptions of learning commonly

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experienced in the TAFE and university settings. In the university setting this hierar-chy places memorising and simple knowledge acquisition at the lower end of thescale, while learning conceived as understanding, abstraction and deep personalgrowth are valued most of all. Students from previously-TAFE settings are presentedwith the sociological challenges that arise from their prior attendance at a TAFE insti-tution, where the most valued conceptions of learning may not coincide with those intheir university context. Drawing on Fuller’s (1999) suggestion that learners holdmultiple conceptions of learning in different strengths, and the quantitative results ofthis present study, this means that previously-TAFE students are required to adjust theway they value different conceptions of learning to suite their university context. Thestudents who participated in this study demonstrated that this re-adjustment is possiblewith adequate support, however as noted above it would be dangerous to conclude thatthis is the case for all previously-TAFE students without interviewing a broader rangeof students from other courses of study.

Finally, the study has showed that both the set of learning conceptions proposedby Purdie and Hattie (2002) in the COLI, and those proposed by Marton, Dall’Albaand Beaty (1993) have value in this sort of investigation. We suggest that there isroom in further research to test the effectiveness of both these sets of proposedconceptions, but also to be mindful of new and different conceptions that may beshown to be present in new learning contexts and contextual shifts.

Conclusions

Using the COLI and a set of quantitative measures, the current study has shown somedifferences in the conceptions of learning as they are held by students who haveentered university on a basis of previous TAFE experiences or previous universityexperiences. While those differences provide some support for our hypothesis thatthere are differences important enough to be taken account of as students work moreoften today between different educational contexts, the results at a quantitative levelare not, in our view, important enough to warrant any major focus of attention from apolicy or a pedagogical viewpoint. In terms of the quantitative differences between thestudents in our sample our contention is that they are sufficiently small that studentswill largely be able to bridge the differences without great difficulty if adequatesupport is provided.

The qualitative component of the research, however, has shown some interestingand subtle differences between the conceptions of learning held by participants in thestudy; and has also indicated that it is useful to use more than one conceptions oflearning framework in this form of quite exploratory research. The qualitative dataindicates some subtleties in the way some conceptions of learning are held, and thesesubtleties are worthy of further exploration with a wider set of participants.

A limitation of the results from our study is their basis in one particular set ofparticipants in limited contexts, and using only one measurement tool. We suggest thatthere is value in repeating our research with other groups and instruments before therecan be confidence about the conclusions we have reached. Other researchers (e.g.Eklund-Myrskog 1996, 1998) have shown differences due to context, but these havebeen revealed through qualitative research methods. Consistently with that, while ourresearch has not shown any strong quantitative differences in conceptions of learningas a function of exposure to different learning environment, it is apparent through thequalitative data (and, to a lesser degree, the quantitative too) that students are required

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to adjust the value placed on different conceptions of learning as they move from aTAFE setting to a university.

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the influence of learning environment on student conceptions of learning

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