Student Approaches to Learning & Studying – John Biggs

Background of John Biggs

Dr. Biggs has been a Professor of Education at the University of Newcastle and the University of Hong Kong and is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of New South Wales (Australia). His research focuses on how students learn in institutional settings, and on assessing the quality of learning. His approach to teaching is based on the assumption that teaching decisions should be grounded in our knowledge of how students learn, from formulating objectives to reporting assessment results.

Theory Behind the Model

A student’s approach to learning has two components:

§ How the student approaches the task (strategy)

§ Why the student wants to approach it (motive)

There are three common approaches to learning:

Surface Approach
The student’s motive to learn is to only carry out the task because of external positive or negative consequences; if he fails life will be unpleasant but if he does well in the subject he will win his instructor’s favor. A typical surface strategy is rote learning, and surface-motivated students focus on what appears to be the most important items and memorizes them. Because of this focus, they do not see interconnections between the meanings and implications of what is learned.

Deep Approach
The deep motive is based on internal motivation or curiosity. In the deep approach, there is a personal commitment to learning, which means that the student relates the content to personally meaningful contexts or to existing prior knowledge. Deep processing involves processes of a higher cognitive level than rote learning; searching for analogies, relating to previous knowledge, and theorizing about what is learned.

Achieving Approach
The achieving motive is like the surface approach in that it is focused on the product (getting an “A” or winning an award). The strategy is to maximize the chances of obtaining high marks. While this hopefully involves a high level of effort to learn the topic (like the deep strategy), the learning is the means, not the end.

While at any given time Surface and Deep approaches are mutually exclusive, an Achieving approach may be linked to either. Surface-Achievers systematically learn selected details by memorization to obtain high grades. Deep-Achievers, who often are the better students, are organized and they plan their search both for meaning and for high marks.

There are two main influences on the student’s development of a certain learning approach: personal factors and the teaching context:

§ On the personal side, some factors in the student’s background or personality seem to be associated with a Surface approach and others with a Deep approach.

§ On the teaching side, time pressures, stress from exams, and standardized tests encourage a Surface approach.