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Deep learning and success at university Tamsin Haggis (2003) is a Scottish educational researcher who has written critically about learning approaches. She suggests that the different ways in which students learn might actually be related to their ‘academic literacy’, by which she means their skills in studying, thinking about and writing academic material, rather than their beliefs about, attitudes to, or motivations for learning. Some of my own research (Hulme & De Wilde, 2015) investigating student transitions to university shows that students often find independent learning and critical thinking challenging at first, and lends some support to Haggis’ argument. It is not surprising that students might find deep learning difficult, given that school learning often focuses on passing exams by drawing on rote learned information, and so students rarely get the opportunity to practice these deep learning skills before they arrive at university. As you progress through university, you need to move increasingly from a surface approach to a deeper approach, relying more on your own independent study and thinking, and less on information provided by your teacher, in order to succeed. Given that deep learning is correlated with academic success, what can you do to develop a deeper approach and the independent learning skills that you need to do this? You also need to recognise when deep and surface approaches are needed.

Activity

When is it ok to use a surface approach to learning, and when should you adopt a deeper approach?

Spend some time looking at the learning outcomes and assessment criteria for the modules you are studying at the moment. Usually these can be found in your module handbooks, provided by your tutor at the start of the term or semester.

Some modules ask you to do very practical things, or to be able to recall specific information. For example:

 Calculate simple parametric tests using SPSS  Explain what is meant by ‘informed consent’  Identify and label major brain structures on a diagram

These sorts of learning outcomes and assessment tasks often require you to recall procedures or facts; they are not asking for critical thought or insight, and as such, whilst deep learning approaches are never a bad idea, surface learning approaches will usually suffice.

Other modules ask you to demonstrate critical thinking, construct arguments, or to show that you can apply psychology and transfer knowledge from one context to another. For example:

 Compare and contrast the cognitive developmental theories of Piaget and Vygotsky  Design a study to determine whether caffeine affects concentration span  Critically discuss learning theories, and identify key factors that can facilitate or hinder learning

These sorts of learning outcomes and assessment tasks require you to draw on an extensive

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