Students' approaches to learning

The distinction between deep approaches and surface approaches to learning is

particularly useful for academics who want to understand their students' learning and
create learning environments which encourage students to achieve desired learning
outcomes.

Deep, surface, and 'achieving' approaches

Deep approach

When students are taking a deep approach they:

 develop understanding and make sense of what they're learning;

 create meaning and make ideas their own.

In their learning strategies they:

 focus on the meaning of what they're learning;

 try to develop their own understanding;

 relate ideas together and make connections with previous experiences;

 ask themselves questions about what they're learning, discuss their ideas with
others and enjoy comparing different perspectives;

 are likely to explore the subject beyond the immediate requirements;

 are likely to have positive emotions about learning.

Surface approach

When students are taking a surface approach they:

 aim to reproduce information to meet external (assessment) demands;

 may aim to meet requirements minimally, and appear to be focused on passing

the assessment instead of (rather than as well as) learning.

In their learning strategies they:

  focus on pieces of information in an atomistic way, rather than making
connections between them and seeing the structure of what is being learned;

 limit their study to the bare essentials;

 may rote learn information for the purpose of reproducing it;

 are likely to have negative emotions about learning.

A key distinction is that a deep approach involves the intention to understand and create
meaning from what is being learned, whereas a surface approach involves an intention
to reproduce. Strategies such as memorising can be part of either a deep approach or a
surface approach, depending on the intention.

Achieving approach

There is also a third approach, called an achieving approach. When students adopt an
achieving approach they:

 enhance their ego and self esteem through competition;

 obtain high grades and other rewards.

In their learning strategies they:

 identify the assessment criteria and estimate the learning effort required to
achieve a particular grade;

 follow up all suggested readings and/or exercises;

 schedule their time and organise their working space,

 behave as a model student;

 operate strategically in their selection of peers.

Why is it useful to know about students' approaches to

learning?
Most university teachers say they prefer their students to take a deep approach along
with an achieving approach, but students often take surface approaches. How students
approach a learning task will strongly influence the quality of their learning outcomes.
As surface approaches lead generally to low retention and an inability to use information
in new contexts, and deep and achieving approaches (together) to a better
understanding, the implication is clear. Good teaching should encourage a deep
approach (together with an achieving approach) at the expense of a surface approach.
An achieving approach can be adopted alongside either a deep approach or a surface
approach. When used with a deep approach, it can result in very good learning
outcomes. When used with a surface approach, it simply makes the surface approach
more efficient.

The positive news for teachers is that there are things we can do to influence the
approaches that students take - to discourage surface approaches and encourage deep
approaches. This is because students' approaches are not fixed characteristics. People
often believe that an approach is characteristic of a student and there are 'deep'
students and 'surface' students. But student learning research shows that students'
approaches can vary according to students' perceptions of their learning environment. A
student who takes a deep approach to one subject, or even part of a subject, may take
a surface approach in relation to something else. We can influence students'
approaches by the way we design subjects and courses, particularly the assessment.
Inquiring into the approaches that your students are taking and the reasons they give for
taking these approaches can be very enlightening, and an excellent way of informing
changes to teaching and subjects.

Why might students be taking a surface approach?

Here are some common reasons (Biggs 1999; Prosser & Trigwell 1999; Ramsden
1992):

 Assessment rewards students for taking a surface approach - eg. exams can be
passed through the rote learning of facts or lists of information;

 Students don't receive adequate feedback on their progress;

 The subject is taught in a way which doesn't make clear its overall structure or
the connections between topics, so it's harder for students to make these
connections;

 The subject doesn't take students' prior knowledge into account, so students are
not able to engage meaningfully;

 The subject contains too much content for the time available - lots of topics are
covered but there is little time to engage with new material more deeply;

 Teaching is teacher-focused and emphasises transmission of information;

 Teaching encourages cynicism, anxiety or other negative feelings about the

subject;

 Students don't see any intrinsic value in learning the subject and teaching doesn't
help them to see the value;
  Students have been successful by using surface approaches in the past;

 Students have multiple other commitments and are trying to do the bare
minimum necessary to pass the subject.

Teachers and subject designers can influence these factors to varying degrees. For
example, we can discourage cynicism and encourage intrinsic interest by sharing our
own passion and enthusiasm for the subject, emphasising its relevance, devising
interesting assessments which help students to make connections between the subject
and the 'real world' of work or the profession.

How do you discourage a surface approach?

You can discourage a surface approach by:

 matching the level of the subject and the pace at which it is presented with
students' prior knowledge. Because of the uses of surface approaches to
learning in previous subjects, many students will not have the expected prior
knowledge at the start of a subject;

 ensuring that assessment tasks are aligned with the desired learning response
(eg. reduce success for rote recall of theories and facts and the chance for
question spotting). If students believe assessments are just machinery for
deriving grades, they will jump the hoops and in return they will get their
qualifications. A deep approach is excluded;

 keeping the workload to a level that allows students the wider exploration of
ideas and the development of interest that characterises deep approaches to
learning;

 matching actual and desired administrative requirements (eg. does the system
punish late submission more than it punishes error?).

How do you encourage a deep approach?

You can encourage a deep approach by:

 designing assessment which rewards students for understanding, making

connections, etc.;

 encouraging active engagement with learning tasks, eg. students are engaged in
inquiry or creative production, explore complex issues, problems or case studies
of practice;
  bringing out the structure of the subject explicitly and encouraging students to
make connections with (or challenge) what they already know;

 giving students opportunities to discuss, debate and compare their

understandings with each other and with the teaching staff;

 giving students opportunities to gain qualitative feedback, especially but not only
on their assessed work, rather than just giving marks or grades;

 giving students reasonable opportunities to make reasonable choices about what

and how they will learn;

 aligning learning objectives, teaching and learning approaches and assessment

to assist students to achieve the learning goals;

 helping students to perceive clear goals and standards for learning;

 designing the subject in a way which matches students' prior knowledge and
learning skills and helps students to develop further;

 using student-focused teaching approaches which emphasise changes in student

understanding, and help students to become aware of critical differences
between their prior understandings about the subject matter and new
understandings or ideas which the subject is seeking to develop;

 teaching in ways which encourage students' intrinsic interest - showing your

enthusiasm.

Find out more

The ideas on this page come from the following sources:
Biggs, J. (1999) Teaching for quality learning at university. SRHE & Open University
Press.
Marton, F., Hounsell, D. & Entwistle, N. (1997) The Experience of Learning: Implications
for Teaching and Studying in Higher Education. Edinburgh, Scottish Academic Press.
Ramsden, P. (1992) Learning to teach in higher education. London: Routledge.
Prosser, M, & Trigwell, K. (1999) Understanding learning and teaching: the experience
in Higher Education. SRHE & Open University Press.