An examination of university students’ learning and studying approaches

Abstract

Students’ learning and studying approaches have positive effect on the quality of learning, academic achievement and performance. The aim
of this study was to explore if the students’ learning and studying approaches show significant differences in terms of gender, departments
and Undergraduate Placement Exam (UPE) scores. The current study was conducted during 2016-2017 academic year with the participation
of 56 female and 122 male students of different departments at Yildiz Technical University. Approaches to Learning and Studying Inventory
(ALSI), developed by Hounsell, Entwistle, Anderson et al. (2002) and adapted to Turkish by Topyaka, Yaka and Ogretmen (2011) was used to
identify students’ approaches to learning and studying. Data were analyzed using One-Way ANOVA and Independent t-test, and Pearson
correlation analysis. According to the findings, it was concluded that there were not any significant differences of university students’
approaches to learning and studying such as surface, deep, and strategic approaches in terms of their departments. The results also showed
that there are significant differences between female and male students regarding their departments. Moreover, it was found out that there
is a positive correlation between students’ UPE scores and strategic learning approaches, while there is a negative relation between students’
UPE scores and deep learning approaches.

Keywords: Studying approaches; learning approaches.