How students learn and study Noel Entwistle

Summary
The ultimate aim of good teaching is to enable students to learn more effectively. Research into how students actually tackle academic tasks is thus of great value to teachers in higher education. This entry introduces and explains the main concepts currently being used to describe student learning and explains the significance of some of the most recent research findings. The ways in which students learn and study are influenced by the teaching and learning materials they encounter; studying is also strongly affected by perceptions of the assessment procedures being adopted.

Biography
Noel Entwistle is the Bell Professor of Education at the University of Edinburgh. He has served as Editor of the British Journal of Educational Psychology and the international journal, Higher Education, and is currently Co-director of a fouryear ESRC-funded project on 'Enhancing teaching-learning environments in undergraduate courses'. He has published widely on research into student learning, including joint editorship of The Experience of Learning (1997).

Keywords
Student learning, surface approach, deep approach, assessment, strategic approach, serialist strategy, holist strategy, memorising, independent studying, teaching-learning environments, "good teaching", explanation, enthusiasm, empathy, understanding, study skills training, Teaching band Learning Research Programme

Concepts describing how students learn

A coherent set of concepts has been established from research on student learning to describe important differences in the ways in which students learn. These concepts have subsequently been used to show how teaching, and a whole range of other influences, affect the ways in which students go about their academic work. Moreover, it is now clear that these differing ways of studying substantially influence the quality of the learning achieved.

Conceptions of learning
Students enter higher education with established beliefs about what it takes to learn, derived from their previous experiences within the educational system. The main distinction between these ideas has been described in terms of conceptions of learning. Some students see learning as the acquisition of facts and, even in higher education, believe they are expected simply to reproduce the information and ideas provided by their teachers. In contrast, others believe learning to require making sense of what is presented in a personally meaningful way. These beliefs about learning translate into different ways of carrying out academic tasks.

Approaches to studying

The earliest studies in this field looked at how students went about reading an academic article. It was found that some students believed they were expected to scan the material, spotting the information most likely to be tested: this was described as a surface approach. In marked contrast were students who tried to make sense of the author's meaning for themselves, interacting vigorously with the ideas being presented - a deep approach. The main distinction in these contrasting approaches to studying is the intention of the students, either to reproduce or to understand the information presented to them. The deep and surface categories emerged from analyses of naturalistic experiments in which an academic task was carried out under controlled conditions. In that context, a crucial element was missing - assessment. Research into everyday studying suggested the need to include an additional category - the strategic approach - again stemming from a distinctive intention, namely to achieve the highest possible grades. Students adopting a strategic approach tried to 'read' the situation and decide which type of learning would garner the highest marks. Sometimes they would use a deep approach, at other times a surface one, with their way of studying being strongly affected by the implicit messages they received from staff about what would be rewarded. An approach to learning or studying is not seen as a stable characteristic of the individual student, although ways of studying do, to some extent, become habitual. Students are influenced, to differing degrees, by both the content of the material they are studying and the study environment in which they find themselves. The initial studies were based on indepth interviews with students, but subsequently inventories (questionnaires with scored sets of items) were developed which assessed the more consistent aspects of studying from large samples of students. (An inventory used to measures approaches to studying can be found at http://www.ed.ac.uk/etl). These analyses confirmed the three main dimensions, and indicated that around half the first-year students reported using surface approaches. Even students with a 'deep' intention did not always adopt the learning processes needed to reach a deep level of understanding, following instead the implicit demands of assessment for more limited forms of learning.

Styles of learning
The combination of interviews and inventories has shown that, generally speaking, there are two main learning processes needed to achieve a thorough understanding, namely relating ideas presented to previous knowledge and using evidence to substantiate the conclusions being reached. Students differ, however, even in the way a deep approach is implemented; some students use the facts and details to build up towards an understanding (a serialist strategy), while others want to see the broad picture, concentrating from the beginning on relating ideas (a holist strategy). Where students adopt these distinctive strategies consistently, they are said to have contrasting learning styles. Students with a holist style prefer, and learn more efficiently from, reading material and teaching full of illustrations, examples, diagrams and anecdotes, while those with a serialist style feel more comfortable with detail and a clear logical structure

Influences of the teaching-learning environment on approaches to studying Approaches and achievement

A wide range of studies has established relationships between approaches to studying and levels of academic achievement, although their interpretation has proved quite complex. Overall, there is a consistent relationship between academic success and strategic approaches which avoid the habitual use of surface learning (for example, inappropriate over-reliance on memorising). But the deep approach is related to high achievement only when the assessment procedures explicitly require and reward understanding. Particularly in the first year of higher education, correct information is often seen to be all that is required to reach the next stage. By the final year of studying, however, the deep approach becomes essential, and students locked into a surface approach increasingly struggle to cope with their courses.

The teaching-learning environment

At school, the impact of teaching on learning is generally strong and direct. In higher education, so much independent studying is required that influences on studying come not only from face-to-face teaching, but from the whole teachinglearning environment. This term encapsulates everything that the student experiences. It would include, for example, the course handbook that sets out the aims and learning outcomes for the module or degree programme, the lectures, discussion classes and laboratory work, the library and computer facilities, the assignments set, the feedback on assignments, and the forms of assessment. Potentially, each of these elements within a teaching-learning environment can influence the approach to studying adopted by the students and, through those differing approaches, the quality of the learning outcomes achieved.

Perceptions of teaching and assessment

Although the teaching-learning environment will affect all students to some extent, it is their individual perceptions of that context which most directly explain the approaches to studying adopted. Inventories have also been developed to assess the more influential aspects of teaching-learning environments (see Further Information, below). Findings suggest that perceptions of too heavy a workload and of restricted choice are associated with surface approaches. 'Closed' assessment procedures, such as multiple-choice and short-answer formats, also encourage surface approaches to revision, whatever the intentions of the test constructors. While it is all too easy to induce a surface approach through teaching and assessment, it has proved more difficult to strengthen the deep approach. An acceptable workload, good choice, and open assessment formats seem to help, but the strongest effects come from the quality of teaching and the design of learning materials. Students describe 'good teaching' in terms of clarity, level, pace, structure, explanation, enthusiasm and empathy. The first four provide the basis for a deep approach, but it seems to be the final 'three-Es' which encourage students actively to engage with the course in ways which lead to understanding.

The nature of academic understanding

Although final examinations are less common in higher education than they were, they remain one way of requiring students to demonstrate understanding. In interviews about revising for Finals, most students said they were trying to understand their notes, and yet very different forms of understanding were described. The most common form involved committing to memory an understanding of the lecturer's notes, so as to reproduce it in the examination. This is little more than a surface approach to understanding, and is unlikely to last. Other students sought an understanding for themselves, but strategically focused on the forms of question anticipated. A few students were more concerned with developing their own understanding of the subject as a whole, a process which would have lasting value but created difficulties in answering questions within severe time constraints. Students were well aware of what 'real understanding' involved, and appreciated achieving it. They generally believed, however, that the courses they were taking made such a goal too risky to seek.

Changing students' approaches to studying

It might seem that the most immediate change in students' approaches to studying could be achieved by providing appropriate study skills training. Attempts to develop workshops and study materials which describe and allow students to practice more effective methods have been tried, but such training rarely seems to carry over into students' actual work. If effective studying is discussed within the courses themselves, however, and if staff exhibit a consistent interest in how students are learning their discipline or professional area, then deep approaches are much more likely to be developed. Yet, unless all elements of the teaching-learning environment show constructive alignment - the need for understanding made explicit and teaching and assessment approaches all directly supporting that requirement - then training in study skills serves only to strengthen whatever strategies students believe will enable them to pass.

Some qualifications and unanswered questions

Much of the research described above leads to generic conclusions about higher education. In reality, there are important differences across subject areas and institutional contexts, but research has yet to explore the specific learning processes required to achieve deep outcomes within individual disciplines. Even the focus on the conceptual understanding of academic content largely ignores the acquisition of generic skills increasingly being fostered within degree courses. Finally, the existing research describes teaching-learning environments in traditional terms, and there is an urgent need to see how, for example, computer-based learning environments and distance- or open-learning contexts influence the ways in which student learn and study. A project within the Teaching and Learning Research Programme recently instituted by the ESRC, however, is currently trying to answer to some of these remaining questions. The progress of this study can be monitored through http://www.ed.ac.uk/etl.

Further information
Each of the main section headings can be followed up through the following references.

Concepts describing how students learn

Marton, F., & Slj, R. (1997). Approaches to learning. In F. Marton, D. J. Hounsell, & N. J. Entwistle (Eds.), The Experience of Learning (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press. Pask, G. (1988). Learning strategies, teaching strategies and conceptual or learning style. In R. R. Schmeck (ed.), Learning Strategies and Learning Styles. New York: Plenum Press.

Influences of the teaching-learning environment on approaches to studying

Biggs, J. B. (1999). Teaching for Quality Learning at University. Buckingham: Open University Press. Entwistle, N. J. (1998). Improving teaching through research on student learning. In J. J. F. Forest (Ed.), University Teaching: International Perspectives (pp. 73-112). New York: Garland. Entwistle, N. J., & Entwistle, A. C. (1997). Revision and the experience of understanding. In F. Marton, D. J. Hounsell, & N. J. Entwistle (Eds.), The Experience of Learning (2nd ed.) (pp. 145-158). Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press. Prosser, M., & Trigwell, K. (1999). Understanding Learning and Teaching. Buckingham: Open University Press. Ramsden, P. (1991). A performance indicator of teaching quality in higher education: the Course Experience Questionnaire. Studies in Higher Education, 16, 129-150.

Changing students' approaches to studying

Gibbs, G. (1981). Teaching Students to Learn: A Student-Centred Approach. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Rust, C. (1998). (Ed.) Improving Student Learning: Improving Students as Learners. Oxford Brookes University: Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development