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The 3P (presage, process, product) model was introduced as a conceptualisation to underpin research into students’ approaches to learning (SAL). This paper proposes the refocusing of the 3P model b...

Umbrella action research projects link together a number of small action research projects under a common organizational and thematic umbrella. This article provides an example of an umbrella action research project, which aimed for teaching quality enhancement. There are two mechanisms by which teaching quality can be enhanced. The first of these is through the improvements initiated in the small projects, which are normally conducted by teachers in the courses they teach. The second mechanism is that of the collective reflective discussions of the whole project team. The collective umbrella that over-arches the individual projects provides a mechanism for participants to collectively transform their understanding of the common thematic issue. There is, therefore, the possibility of an emancipatory transformation, so that the whole achieves more than the sum of the individual projects. This article substantiates the impact of umbrella action research projects by presenting case studies from an overall project that focused on online learning. The cases highlight our reflective discussions on promoting student engagement in online learning. They show how our collective understanding of engagement in online learning was advanced and some of the means tried in the small projects to encourage student engagement. As there is evidence of teaching quality enhancement through the umbrella action research project, we discuss the possibility of redirecting some of the resources currently devoted to quality assurance to quality enhancement through encouraging action research projects.

As higher education has made the transition from elite to mass enrolments, the student body has become more diverse and online and blended learning have become more common. This study aimed to examine the impacts on attrition of admitting a more diverse student body with the shift towards online and blended learning. A hypothesised path model of attrition was tested with structural equation modelling. The model contained four presage variables related to the changed demographic of the student body and alternative modes of study; attendance mode, admission basis, remoteness and socio-economics status. There were two intervening variables; age and year of study. The two outcome variables were dropout and GPA value. The model was tested against a large sample of data from a student record system of a regional Australian university. The model showed a good fit to the data predicting that the expansion of higher education, along with the increasing use of online and blended learning, will impact on attrition.

Interviews were conducted with 29 part-time taught postgraduate (TPg) students to determine forms of teaching and curriculum which motivated their learning. The study was conducted in an open exploratory manner to investigate the aspects of pedagogy or curriculum design which particularly motivated the TPg students which were in any way distinct from typical undergraduate teaching. As most of the TPg students were mature professionals working in a field connected to the course they had enrolled in, they were able to identify relevant knowledge, skills and abilities which ought to be included in the content or curriculum. This distinguishes them from typical undergraduate students. The TPg students appreciated in-class discussion so that they could share experiences and expertise. The interviewees preferred assessment tasks that related to their professional practice. Teaching and learning for TPg students should recognise the expertise of the students and draw upon it as a valuable learning resource.

Two mechanisms for engaging in critical reflective dialogue are discussed and compared: face-to-face meetings and asynchronous online discussion. The context is an umbrella action research project, with over 20 participants, which aimed to improve practices in online teaching and contribute to the development of graduate attributes. The article compares discussion using the two modes (face-to-face and online) of the nature of and development of problem-solving and other graduate attributes. Face-to-face discussion was wide ranging and quite loosely structured, so divergent aspects of a topic were uncovered. The asynchronous nature of online discussion, however, permitted topics to be explored more thoroughly. The two modes worked well in conjunction with one another, if aspects of face-to-face discussion topics were posted online as discussion threads. The asynchronous online discussions then allowed each thread to be explored in depth, so that collective understanding of a given topic could be en...

This study examined the pace and degree of adaptation of study behaviour and personal epistemological beliefs between school and university through interviews with 110 final-year university students. The study took place in Hong Kong, where the highly competitive school system encourages remembering modelling answers for the public examinations; hence, students appear to hold naive epistemological beliefs on entry to university. Developing more sophisticated beliefs appeared to be a pre- or co- requisite to adopting study behaviour more appropriate for university study. The pace and degree of adaptation varied between disciplines and appeared to be influenced by both the nature of knowledge within a discipline and the type of pedagogy adopted. The influences are discussed in terms of a two-by-two framework, ranging from well-established to contested knowledge, and didactic teaching to active student engagement. Cases are given to illustrate each quadrant as well as progressive development. Perceptions or ...

There is a need for a questionnaire designed specifically to evaluate taught postgraduate (TPg) awards for quality assurance or enhancement purposes. Comparison of undergraduate and TPg awards suggests that as the former have broadened their ambit to better nurture generic graduate attributes, TPg awards have concentrated on advanced specialised knowledge and skills. Those enrolling in TPg programmes are often mature part-time students working in a field associated with the subject studied. A set of interviews with TPg students revealed that they had clear expectations of the knowledge and skills they were expected to acquire from their studies and were able to comment critically on curriculum design. This made it clear that instruments designed for undergraduate degrees would not be suitable. Therefore, a TPg questionnaire was designed based on a model derived from a qualitative study, which adopted a grounded theory approach to collect views from 21 part-time TPg students from seven programmes offered b...

There has been a substantial rise in the number of students enrolling in part-time taught postgraduate awards. This study investigates the reasons or motivation for students to spend significant amounts on tutorial fees and find time alongside work, family and social commitments to take a taught postgraduate award. Data were gathered through interviews with 21 part-time students in taught postgraduate programmes in Hong Kong. Students all held several motives for studying, so the outcome was a framework for explaining multiple interacting motives. Main categories of motivation were related to qualifications, current career, potential future career, interest, perpetual students and professional and social networks. Individual students displayed varying degrees of these motivations and the sub-categories of them. Students were able to specify their needs in terms of advanced specialised study, so enrolment satisfied a need for continuing professional development. The rise in taught postgraduate enrolments, ...

A motivational orientation framework for higher education has previously been derived from interviews with 36 undergraduate students in an elite university system. The framework consists of six interacting facets of motivation represented by continua labelled: compliance, individual goal setting, sense of belonging, interest, career and university lifestyle. The aim of this study was to see whether the framework also applied to entrants to a community and vocational college sector, the emergence of which has boosted participation to mass higher education status. Individual interviews were conducted with 25 students in five colleges in Hong Kong. Analysis identified main themes and referenced these against those of the previous study. The data were consistent with the facets of the original framework. A fuller understanding was reached of the less motivated ends of the continua, as these were more commonly displayed than by the undergraduate sample in the previous study. There was evidence of avoidance goa...

Governments are aiming to expand the intake to higher education, so it is important to understand what motivates students to enter university and choose a particular programme. The aim of this study was to see whether a motivational orientation framework, developed to explain motivation to study, could also be applied to motivation to enrol in a selected university programme. Data were collected through individual open interviews with 36 undergraduate students at three universities in Hong Kong. Analysis used a grounded theory approach. The motivational orientation framework consists of six continua, labelled: compliance, individual goal setting, university lifestyle, sense of belonging, career and interest. It was possible to interpret data on decisions to go to university and to pick particular programmes with the framework. Students could be allocated to a position on each continuum, which then characterised their initial motivation for study.

Where courses have as an aim the promotion of reflective practice, it will enhance the achievement of the goal if the level of reflective thinking is assessed. To do this in a satisfactory way requires a reliable protocol for assessing the level of reflection in written work. This article presents a protocol that can be used to guide the allocation of work to four categories, namely: habitual action/non‐reflection, understanding, reflection, and critical reflection. Intermediate categories can also be used. Detailed descriptors of each category to guide the process are provided. The protocol was tested by four assessors independently using it to grade a set of written work, and very good agreement was obtained.

This article uses the case of designing a new course questionnaire to discuss the issues of validity, reliability and diagnostic power in good questionnaire design. Validity is often not well addressed in course questionnaire design as there are no straightforward tests that can be applied to an individual instrument. The authors propose the technique of establishing validity by deriving constructs from naturalistic qualitative research—in this case by interviewing award‐winning teachers about their principles and practices. Analysis of the interview transcripts led to nine principles of good teaching, which were developed into nine questionnaire scales. Reliability was tested with Cronbach’s alpha and with confirmatory factor analysis, as the use of Cronbach’s alpha alone can mask issues of multi‐dimensionality in scales. The concept of diagnostic power as the ability of an instrument to distinguish between related constructs is introduced. This is important in course evaluation questionnaires, as it ena...

The relationship between conceptions of teaching and approaches to teaching was explored in a study of 18 secondary school art teachers in Hong Kong. Conceptions of teaching approaches were fitted to a four‐category model. Each of the categories was distinguished by reference to six relevant dimensions. As is the case in higher education, approaches to teaching lower forms, with little pressure from external examinations or school ethos, followed logically from conceptions of teaching. There was also evidence that contextual influences, if they were sufficiently strong, could play a part in teachers’ approaches to teaching in the lower forms. For senior forms, the most marked contextual influence on approaches to teaching came from the external examination syllabus. Of the 13 teachers who taught senior form students, eight reported using approaches to teaching that were significantly different from those they used for lower forms. The remaining four used essentially the same approach for junior and senior...

The expansion in the number of people entering higher education has resulted in a substantial increase in the proportion of students enrolling in nontraditional modes, such as part-time study. This study examined the question of whether part-time study curtails the development of the types of intellectual capabilities needed for a knowledge-based economy, because the students would have markedly less exposure to a stimulating campus environment than their full-time counterparts. Graduates from discrete full- and part-time programs from 1 university in Hong Kong completed a survey seeking perceptions of the nurturing of a range of capabilities, together with measures of teacher-student relationships and type of teaching experienced. Two hypotheses were tested by structural equation modeling: (a) the same mechanism for capability development operated for full- and part-time modes and (b) the principal element of the mechanism was the nature of teaching and the quality of teacher-student interaction. Hypothe...

A qualitative study of perception of workload found that it was very weakly related to hours of work. The complex construct was better characterised as being influenced by a broadly conceived teaching and learning environment. It appeared to be possible to encourage students to perform a great deal of high‐quality work, without complaining about excessive workload, by attention to this environment. This hypothesis was tested quantitatively with structural equation modelling with a sample of 3320 undergraduate students at a university in Hong Kong. The hypothesised model had nine factors of the teaching and learning environment grouped under three higher‐order latent variables: teaching, teacher–student relationships and student–student relationships which have influences on perceived workload. The model showed a good fit to the data, confirming the hypothesis that attention to the teaching and learning environment can spur students to work hard without feeling overly stressed. The questionnaire could be u...

A characteristic shared by the majority of adult students is that they are undertaking part‐time study. For these adult learners one of the major difficulties is how to find time for their study. This paper reports the coping mechanisms that part‐time adult students adopt to meet the additional demands that study puts on their existing commitments to work, family and social lives. Data were collected from 53 part‐time students in eight universities in Hong Kong through semi‐structured interviews. A model featuring three coping mechanisms (sacrifice, support and negotiation of arrangements) within four domains (self, work, family and social life) was used for the analysis. Whether or not these coping mechanisms are operationalized to a sufficient extent can have a significant impact upon the students' progress with their courses. The analytical grid provides a framework for counselling and advising adult learners. Part‐time adult students can also use the model to evaluate their own situations and determin...

An examination of the literature suggests that universities play a part in developing generic capabilities needed nowadays for societies, through immersing students in a stimulating campus environment. Part time students, though, spend less time on campus than their full time counterparts, and far less time than on‐campus residents, so could be expected to experience a less rich study environment. It might, therefore, be questioned whether there is a mechanism by which universities can influence to any great extent the development of these capabilities in part time students. The aim of this study was to determine the mechanism by which the study environment influences the development of eight qualities for part time students. An instrument was developed to seek the perceptions of the development of the eight capabilities and of eight variables identified as important elements in the part time study environment. The sample consisted of 1149 graduates from part time programmes of one university in Hong Kong...

Surveys at a university in Hong Kong indicated that graduates of discrete part‐time programmes perceived significantly higher development in eight out of nine graduate capabilities than their counterparts in full‐time programmes. Several possible explanations are considered and rejected. The conventional view that capabilities are nurtured through immersion in a stimulating campus environment was not applicable, as the part‐time students spent less time on campus than the full‐time ones. Other data in the survey suggested that the respective teaching and learning environments might be the principal cause. It appeared that the part‐time courses had more teacher–student interaction, and were more likely to employ active learning approaches. Structural equation modelling was used to examine this possible explanation. A model in which the type of teaching and teacher–student relationships impacted upon capability development showed a good fit to the data. The greatest effect was from teaching approaches requi...

This study examined the way part‐time students cope with fitting in study on top of other demands on their time. To measure the deployment of coping mechanisms, an instrument was developed based on previous qualitative work. The earlier work had identified three coping mechanisms—sacrifice, support, and negotiation of arrangements—operating in four domains of the self—work, family, and social lives. A measure for the sense of belonging to college was also developed. The combined measures were completed by a sample of 208 adult students enrolled in part‐time courses in an open university. Analysis by structural equation modelling showed that there were significant relationships between the employment of coping mechanisms and the development of a sense of belonging to the college. Students were more likely to exhibit a strong sense of belonging if: they had negotiated with their family a time to study: they had established regular study routines; they reported high levels of social support; and they declare...

Students in part‐time courses were interviewed about their perceptions of good teaching and tutoring. The perceptions differed markedly between those with reproductive conceptions of learning and students holding self‐determining ones. The former preferred didactic teaching but disliked interaction, whereas the latter had almost diametrically opposite perspectives by finding student‐centred approaches consistent with their conceptions of learning. The findings have implications for the evaluation of teaching, as ratings are likely to be influenced by the predominant conceptions of learning of a class. It is common for individual instructors to be regularly evaluated by teacher evaluation questionnaires, which often have a teacher‐centred bias, and for the ratings to be used for appraisal. It is argued that this leads to conservatism as teachers fear that students with reproductive conceptions of learning will reduce their ratings if they innovate in their teaching. As the degree of bias from this ratings‐...

This study investigated the perceptions of good teaching of adult students. Fifty-three students enrolled in part-time courses in Hong Kong were interviewed about a range of issues concerned with teaching, tutoring and learning. The initial analysis showed that there was no universal view of what constituted good teaching, as approaches preferred by some students resembled those disliked by others. These apparent contradictions were resolved by the recognition that perceptions of teaching quality were framed by conceptions of learning, which were shown to be consistent with a continuum from a reproductive pole to a self-determining one. Each of the four quadrants of the framework represents a conception of learning receiving teaching consistent or inconsistent with it. The quadrant representing self-determining learners receiving consistent facilitative teaching is seen as the goal for adult education to strive for. Didactic teaching was consistent with reproductive conceptions of learning. Teachers faced...

It is becoming increasingly common for academics to engage in research into their own teaching, usually by introducing some form of innovation into one of their courses. When doing so, they are often inclined by disciplinary tradition, or urged by senior colleagues, to use experimental designs in order that any observed outcomes can be attributed to the innovation itself. This article points out the problems with experimental designs for naturalistic studies of innovative teaching in higher education. A genuine control is impossible. Practical difficulties in separating groups often result in contamination of designs. Educational issues are complex with many variables involved. Therefore, experimental designs with limited numbers of cells result in over-simplification because they deal with only a few of the relevant factors. Particular types of innovation are not precisely reproducible so generalisation can be misleading. As an alternative, triangulation across multi-method evaluations from several sourc...

This study examined the association between students' approaches to learning and stages of reflective thinking. The revised version of the Study Process Questionnaire was used to measure deep and surface approaches to learning and the Reflection Questionnaire was used to distinguish four stages of reflective and nonreflective thinking. Both questionnaires were completed by 402 undergraduates from all years of study from a health science faculty in a university in Hong Kong. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test possible associations. The results showed that only the habitual action scale correlated significantly to surface approach to learning. Understanding, reflection and critical reflection correlated with deep approach but had no correlation to surface approach. Understanding, reflection and critical reflection correspond to the use of a deep approach with increasing levels of meaningful personal assimilation. These findings provide evidence of close association between approaches to learning ...

An investigation was conducted into 3- or 4-year departmental sets of student feedback questionnaire data from one university. Only four out of 25 departments had significant changes to any of the six dimensions in the 3- or 4-year period, and three of these significant changes were falls. There is, therefore, no evidence that the use of the questionnaire was making any contribution to improving the overall quality of teaching and learning of the departments, at least as perceived by the students. If it was, there should have been evidence of rising values. The following reasons why the use of the questionnaire might not have been conducive to improving teaching quality are discussed. The possibility that teaching quality is inherently stable is rejected. It is possible that feedback from the questionnaire was not used effectively. Related to this is whether instructors perceived that the university rewarded good teaching, so felt there was an incentive to make use of the feedback. The emphasis of the sys...

The outcomes of action research are examined through the 90 projects supported by the Action Learning Project. This was an initiative that aimed for quality enhancement of teaching and learning through supporting academics to engage in action research projects addressing some aspect of courses they taught. The evaluation of the individual projects indicated that almost all were successful in introducing the promised reform or innovation and of impacting for the better upon the learning of students enrolled in the target courses. There were also longer-term outcomes associated with engaging in the process of action research. The large majority of the participants felt that they perceived the following longer-term benefits: a lasting improvement to their teaching; a knowledge of how to conduct action research; development of their capacity to monitor and reflect upon their own teaching; and better teamwork skills. About half the participants felt they had also had some impact upon others in their d...

This article develops a classification system for the orientations to enrolment of part-time students based upon their practical lifelong learning needs. Orientation to enrolment is seen as a complex construct embodying all the reasons, purposes, expectations and motivations that cause students to pick a particular course and elect to study by the part-time mode. Virtually all of the interviewed students had a vocational orientation so some previously used categorisation schemes were not suitable. Instead seven categories relating to lifelong learning needs provided a scheme which covered the cases and related well to explanations given by interviewees for enrolling in the courses. These were re-training or further development for those who need to make a career shift; education for professionals who need to undertake continuing professional development through their careers; an opportunity for a tertiary education for those who did not previously have the chance; an education at the tertiary level for th...

Seventeen lecturers in three departments in a university were interviewed about their conceptions of good teaching, their perceptions of the differences between adult and full-time students, and the actual strategies and methods they employed in their practice of teaching the two student groups. Results showed that there were common perceptions of the way adult students differed from their full-time adolescent counterparts. However, they reacted differently to those perceived differences. Three major types of accommodation were found: catering for weakness, treating both groups in the same way, and remediating weaknesses. The lecturers' conceptions of good teaching could be categorized into two main categories: transmissive and facilitative. Cross-tabulation of the teaching conception of the individual lecturers with their orientation to accommodation showed that those holding a transmissive conception tended to cater for the weakness of their students or make no distinction between teaching adult and ful...

This study interviewed 53 novice or experienced students enrolled in part-time courses in Hong Kong universities. It was found that the attitudes to and ability to cope with study were influenced by a coherent set of beliefs about knowledge and the process of teaching and learning. This belief set was characterised in two broad orientations as didactic/reproductive or facilitative/ transformative. Novice students holding didactic/reproductive beliefs found it difficult to adjust to higher education if the teaching was not expository, as often happened with distance education tutorials. These students also experienced problems with assignments which went beyond the reproduction of material, since these were incompatible with their epistemological beliefs. The conclusion is that courses should aim to help students make the difficult transition to the belief orientation of the more experienced students as a means of assimilating students into higher education.

Many courses aim to promote reflective thinking or reflection upon practice, but there is a scarcity of readily usable instruments to determine whether students engage in reflective thinking and, if so, to what extent. This paper reports the development and testing of such an instrument. To ensure validity, the constructs measured were derived from the extensive literature on reflective thinking, particularly the writing of Mezirow. A combination of the literature review and initial testing led to the development of a four-scale instrument measuring four constructs; habitual action, understanding, reflection and critical reflection. The final version of the instrument was tested with a sample of 303 students from eight classes of a health science faculty. The reliability of the scales was established by acceptable Cronbach alpha values. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit to the proposed four-factor structure. Comparison of mean scores between the eight classes showed predicted significant diff...

This study examined the ways in which new students attempt to adjust to part‐time study. Data were gathered through interviews with 53 students enrolled in part‐time courses in Hong Kong. It was found that the data could be interpreted in terms of the construct of self‐direction. The novice students showed a surprising degree of determination towards personal autonomy. When it came to self‐management in learning, those least equipped for self‐management were the ones tending to show the greatest difficulties in part‐time study. Some students were able to find help from teaching staff, fellow students or friends in developing self‐direction. It would appear, though, that universities could do more to help students develop self‐managed learning capabilities, and if they did so would ease the transition towards becoming a successful part‐time student.

This paper examines the effectiveness of active learning implemented in two undergraduate programmes at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Several learning activities were implemented during student seminar sessions. The effectiveness of these activities was investigated using questionnaires and interviews to explore student attitudes as well as the Study Process Questionnaire to measure student approaches to learning. Results showed that active learning made a valuable contribution to the development of independent learning skills and the ability to apply knowledge. It also helped to create interest in the curriculum and to prepare students for their future careers. The activities used affected the quality of student learning by shaping the way that students studied and meeting desired learning outcomes. The results are discussed in the context of student approaches to learning and in relation to the programmes' educational objectives.

This study examines the processes adult students use to integrate part-time study with existing family, work and social commitments. Evidence is drawn from interviews with students in three countries. A causal network is proposed with a positive category where social obligations are accommodated with study demands. The alternative category results in external attribution of the failure to accommodate demands. For each category the three environments of work, family and social lives are examined. Three mechanisms are discussed for facilitating integration, namely support, sacrifice and negotiating arrangements. Negotiating sanctuaries of time or space for study are seen as important. The three mechanisms for accommodating part-time study mean that students with adverse circumstances are not pre-destined to fail and that there is a role for universities in counselling and assisting students in adapting to part-time study.

Student perceptions of workload are hypothesised to be a function of class contact hours, independent study hours, English language ability, GPA and the students’ propensity to employ meaning or reproducing approaches to learning. Data on these variables were gathered from students in a mechanical engineering programme in a university. Models testing the interrelationship between these variables and perceived workload were found to have a good fit to the data by structural equation modelling. The direction of the relationship between perceived workload and reproducing approach was investigated by comparing alternative models which were both found to fit the data well. The models suggest a number of guidelines for curriculum designers if students are not to feel pressured by overloaded curricula. These include the greater impact of timetabled class hours as compared to independent study and the need to avoid contextual influences which might induce students to employ a reproducing approach to lear...

Many institutions producing distance education courses employ teaching‐learning specialists, who are most commonly known as instructional designers. The suitability of instructional design as a framework for educational development is questioned, since it is a prescriptive science and course design is an ill‐defined problem. The designer‐client relationship also implies a deficit assumption about academic staff. Action research is advanced as an alternative approach to educational development. It is argued that an important feature of course teams has been the critical discourse which is an integral part of action research. The Action Learning Project is used as an example of how the action research framework can be put into practice. The multi‐faceted role of the ‘critical friend’ in supporting projects is described.

A method for enhancing the quality of teaching and learning is through encouraging academics to engage in action research projects into some aspect of their teaching which is of interest or problematic for them. Action research is promoted as a means for committed teachers to bridge the gap between their theories and practice. However, groups of teachers, fresh to such ideas and methods, may need help to get their projects started and advice on how to proceed afterwards. ‘Critical friends’ are people recommended by Stenhouse (1975) to take up this pro-active role through the building and maintenance of a partner relationship with the academics throughout their projects. This article discusses the role of the critical friend performed by the co-ordinating team of the Action Learning Project in supporting educational action research projects in Hong Kong. Important facets of such a role include the: financier, project design consultant, rapport builder, coffee maker, mirror, teaching consultant, ev...

This article points out that there are costs associated with schemes for ensuring quality in higher education, and the more elaborate the scheme the higher the cost. Further, the marginal quality returns decrease as the measures become more involved and more expensive. There are also differing relationships between cost and quality return for quality control and quality enhancement schemes. In the former, improvement in quality tends towards a plateau as teaching and courses reach some minimum acceptable standard. There may even be a decrease in quality if schemes become excessively time consuming or inquisitorial. Quality enhancement schemes show smaller reductions in marginal quality returns as investment increases. Workshop‐type schemes tend to peter out as the level of offering increases, but project‐type approaches continue to show returns unless the investment becomes very high. These relative cost structures are used as an argument for evaluating quality measures themselves, for simplifyin...

It is common to hear teachers claim that their students expect to be spoon fed and are only capable of regurgitating information they have been fed. Their curricula reflect this belief and the outcome is a self‐fulfilling prophecy—the students dutifully regurgitate to the best of their ability to fulfill assessment requirements. We present a case study of a course based upon this belief, but provide evidence to show that the assumption was not true at all. When an alternative curriculum stressing independent learning and student‐centred approaches was developed, the students were not only capable of more meaningful learning approaches, they actually preferred them—even if they did at times work harder. We discuss the aspects of course design which contributed to encouraging students to use a deep approach to learning.

SUMMARY Examination of different learning activities can give an insight into their effectiveness for the learning process. The present paper seeks to identify basic structural features of learning activities through their analysis, comparison and evaluation. The paper suggests a structural framework for describing learning activities based on an exploratory study carried out within the Hong Kong Polytechnic. A total of 41 activities from six courses in three departments were involved. The activities were evaluated through participant observation, feedback questionnaire and semi‐structured interviews with students participating in the courses. A factor analysis of evaluation data on activities of each course extracted several factors which served as a basis for creating a classification system of structural features. The structural framework divides activities into four phases: introduction, preparation, presentation and debriefing. The factor analysis has suggested the need to incorporate both the size a...

How should courses be arranged if students are to be encouraged to reflect upon their practice through the writing of reflective journals? This research question was addressed in action research studies of five courses in the allied health areas. The five studies fed into one overall project which synthesised findings from the five subprojects through the critical discussions of the participants. It was discovered that students needed an introduction to and feedback upon reflective writing as it differed from other types of writing required in academic courses. For reflective writing to be taken seriously, it needed to be an integral part of the course. Issues such as the disclosure of journal entries and the assessment of reflective writing needed to be handled sensitively. The courses studied evolved positions on these issues which attempted to balance dichotomous concerns.

Interrelationships between learning approaches, study motivation, hours of study, perceived workload, English language ability and grade point average were investigated. A total of 174 students, who had enrolled in a mechanical engineering degree course, completed a study diary for 1 week. The diary was divided into hourly recording periods with spaces for both quantitative and qualitative responses. The quantitative data yielded variables for learning approaches and motivations, English ability, perceived workload, time spent in class, time spent on private study and grade point average. These variables were linked in a path model. Case-studies were used to illustrate and explain the model. The variables in the model were weakly interrelated. Perceived workload, therefore, depends upon motivation as well as the amount of work. Grade point average did improve somewhat with hours of work, but students could work long hours and still obtain poor grades because they used inappropriate learning appro...

This is a three-part study examining an initiative designed to improve learning of Hong Kong Polytechnic business students. In Part I, three different paradigms for describing the learning process are outlined and students' conceptions of learning are identified. In Part II, the approaches to learning paradigm is discussed. Results of a comparison between the business students' first and second years indicate that the project failed to increase students' adoption of deep learning approaches but secured improvements relative to students in other Polytechnic programs. Part III discusses learning styles. Statistical analysis of results from the Learning Styles Questionnaire, administered to first-year undergraduate business students, suggests that matching teaching styles to learning styles may not be educationally beneficial. However, it may be helpful to introduce students to a process they may undergo later in management development programs.

Summary This study examines the attitudes of physiotherapy students towards the replacement of conventional lectures with self‐learning packages. Self‐learning packages were written for part of a course at the Hong Kong Polytechnic. Attitudes to use of the packages were determined with a questionnaire, and student approaches to learning were measured with the ‘Study Process Questionnaire’. It was found that students with a propensity towards a deep approach to learning were more likely to express a preference for self‐study. Those with a propensity towards a surface approach needed the lecture to define the course. There was tentative evidence that the use of a surface approach declined as more self‐study packages were completed.

(1994). The teacher is more important than the medium: Pre‐packaged instructional materials are not axiomatic with surface learning. Distance Education: Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 153-159.

In an optometry subject which utilised group projects, students complained that awarding the same mark to all group members was often not a fair reflection of individual effort. Accordingly, an examination was made of procedures for assessing the contribution of an individual to a group project. A classification system for such schemes is given. One subject in the optometry course used a system which modified the group mark by a two‐part weighting factor. A detailed evaluation and critique of this scheme is given. A simpler scheme with a one‐part multiplicative weighting factor was derived from the best elements of the initial scheme. The simplified scheme is described and examples of the calculations given. Its use in another subject in the same course is described and evaluation data presented.

The purpose of the study was to determine the ways lecturing staff at a polytechnic in Hong Kong approach their teaching and then to make inferences about their staff development needs. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted individually with 39 full‐time lecturing staff to determine their views on their teaching practices, the reasons some students fail to achieve the course objectives, the changes they would like to make to their teaching, the barriers standing in their way and the strategies they could use to overcome these barriers. Transcripts were analysed independently by three raters and themes extracted. There was a mismatch between the interviewees' perceptions of the goals of higher education and what they were doing in practice. While they stated that the goals of higher education were to encourage problem‐solving or independent learning, in reality they were aiming for the more narrow goal of developing in their students the specific job‐related skills they saw as necessary for th...

Developments in the provision of distance education in Australia and Hong Kong are analysed in terms of eight phases, characterised by Government policies and institutional practices. Hong Kong appears to be progressing through the same developmental phases as Australia, but at later points in time. Both countries decided against forming a single national open university in favour of dispersed provision but neither followed recommendations to form a body to co‐ordinate course provision nationally. Both have experienced a period of uncontrolled and unco-ordinated expansion of distance education courses and Hong Kong is still in this phase, whereas Australia is now in the midst of belated attempts by its federal government to rationalise distance education at the national level along with higher education as a whole. We argue that much of the confusion surrounding these events could have been prevented by early planning and setting of clear policy guidelines, together with a recognition that implementation ...