Relationship Between School Characteristics and Approaches To Learning

Abstract

The present study questions the correspondence between school characteristics and approaches to learning. A total of 1178 students (age range 18-20) participated in the study. An instrument that contained items on demographic characteristics, school characteristics, and a self-report questionnaire yielding scores on basic motives, strategies and corresponding approaches to learning was administered. Partial correlations were calculated to determine the correspondence between school characteristics and motivational constituents of learning (surface, deep and achieving approaches to learning). Results indicated relatively more frequent use of the deep approach and the achieving strategy in schools where students were observed to perceive fewer problems concerning teacher quality, class size or management.