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The influence of learning environment

on student conceptions of learningPeter J. Smith

a& Damian Blake

a

aFaculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University, Australia

Available online: 21 Sep 2009

To cite this article:Peter J. Smith & Damian Blake (2009): The influence of learning environment

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Journal of Vocational Education and Training

Vol. 61, No. 3, September 2009, 231246

ISSN 1363-6820 print/ISSN 1747-5090 online

2009 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd

DOI: 10.1080/13636820902996517

http://www.informaworld.com

The influence of learning environment on student conceptionsof learning

Peter J. Smith* and Damian Blake

Faculty of Arts and Education Deakin University, Australia

TaylorandFrancisRJVE_A_399823.sgm

(Received 7 April 2008; final version received 17 April 2009)10.1080/13636820902996517JournalofVocationalEducationandTraining0729-4360 (print)/1469-8366 (online)Original Article2009Taylor&Francis613000000September 2009DrPet [email protected]

Responding to the increasing numbers of students who now study across more thanone of the traditional sectors of education and training, this research exploredquantitative differences in conceptions of learning between students who hadentered university study on the basis of a VET qualification, and those who hadentered on a basis of previous university studies. Using the Conceptions of LearningInventory the research also used gender as an independent variable. While somedifferences were shown between the previously-VET and previously-universitystudents and some differences between genders these differences were characterised

by low to moderate effect sizes only. The authors conclude that the quantitativedifferences are not particularly important, but that qualitative research may indicatedifferences in kind between the conceptions of learning of the two groups.

Keywords: conceptions of learning; vocational education; technical and furthereducation (TAFE); gender

Introduction and context

Post-secondary education in Australia, along with much of the rest of the planet, is

undergoing significant change and re-alignment between the sectors. Over the past

couple of decades post-secondary education has been represented by three identifiable

formal education sectors: the adult and community education (ACE) sector; the voca-

tional education and training (VET sector), strongly represented by the publiclyfunded Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutions; and the university

sector. In this paper we will be focussing on two of these sectors VET and university.

The focus on these two sectors is the result of a considerable blurring of the bound-

aries between the sectors expressed in a number of different ways. While it was orig-inally developed to provide sub-degree VET at Certificate and Diploma levels, a

number of the TAFE institutes are now offering vocational degrees at the Bachelor,

Graduate Certificate, and Graduate Diploma levels previously the province of the

higher education university sector. The vocational degrees in TAFE institutes do not

adopt a competency approach to assessment. A second form of blurring is occurringwith the movement of students between the sectors. Harris, Rainey and Sumner (2006)

have provided evidence that movement between the sectors has been a feature of

policy at legislative level for some years; they also provide evidence that the transfer

is frequently made between the sectors by individual students. That movement is bothways. University graduates access the VET sector for further vocational related

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]


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232 P.J. Smith and D. Blake

learning and certification, and VET students move into university courses with

varying amounts of credit towards their degrees.A student moving from a VET to a university course may be motivated by any

number of factors in the Australian context. First, studying in the public TAFE insti-

tutes is usually considerably cheaper than in a university; students who can complete

part of their work in TAFE and then move to university with academic credits will

most likely save money. Second, a student who doesnt win a place on merit at univer-sity in the first instance can more easily obtain a place in TAFE and then move to

university on the basis of a successful TAFE outcome. A further reason in a vast coun-

try like Australia can be geographic, where students can enrol initially in a local VET

provider and then move towards a more distant university at a later stage, takingacademic credits with them. There is evidence to suggest that this VET to university

pathway is more important for rural and regional students in Australia (Teese, Clarke,

and Polesel 2007), who use this pathway at a higher rate than city-based students.

Finally, there are reasons associated with development, where a student initially sees

their desired career being the result of a VET course but subsequently changes interesttowards something that requires a university outcome. There are, of course, other

reasons for transfer that will be more individually held.

As a result of the interest in these VET to university transfers the development and

publication of formal pathways to facilitate the move has become commonplace. AGoogle search of TAFE to university pathways will yield a large number of websites

detailing different Australian State arrangements, or detailing individual institutional

arrangements. Watson (2007, 14) reported that between 2001 and 2005 the number

of students admitted to university on the basis of a VET award increased by 46

percent and that 10 % of university students now have come from VET.

There are major differences between the university and the VET sectors in theirpedagogy and assessment, and it is the experience of students as they engage this

change that interests us in this paper. The VET sector is competency based in terms

of the organisation of pedagogy and assessment is competency based as well. Instruc-tion is organised around training packages, which are developed in conjunction with

the relevant industry sector, and which specify the competencies to be achieved at

each qualification level in preparation for the given occupation. Students are assessed

as competent or as not yet competent, and learning in and from workplaces is an

important component of the training experience, and assessment in the workplace isalso common. Universities, on the other hand, generally provide a broader curriculum

that is developed in conjunction with relevant industry (and in some cases needs theaccreditation of the relevant professional body), but is not closely specified as a set of

competencies to be reached. Assessment is more likely to contain theoreticalcomponents as well as practice components, and is typically graded rather than utilis-

ing the binary competent/not yet competent system of the VET sector. Assessment in

universities is also more typically normative than criterion referenced.

Conceptions of learning

With regard to learning intents and expected outcomes, Marton and Booth have argued

that if we wish to understand learning, we must put the learners experience of a

phenomenon into a context of, and in relation with experience of other phenomenon(1996, 538). Lai and Chan put this nicely when they wrote Conceptions of learning

refer to the beliefs and understanding held by learners about learning (2005, 3).


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Journal of Vocational Education and Training 233

There is evidence from qualitative case study-based research (Blake and Smith

2007) with VET students who are also still enrolled at secondary school level that theyencounter different conceptions of learning as they move between school and work-

places and TAFE institutes. In this present paper we extend that research to explore

differences that students bring with them as they move along a pathway from a TAFE

experience to a university one.

There is evidence that exposure to learning contexts impacts on the conceptions oflearning held by students (Eklund-Myrskog 1996, 1998). It is on that basis that we

have developed our hypothesis that the students from the TAFE backgrounds will

exhibit some different conceptions of learning than those who have come to their new

university course from a previous university course experience. Our current researchis designed to explore whether there are differences in the degrees to which students

hold their different conceptions of learning (a quantitative study), and whether there

are differences in the ways they talk about their experiences of different conceptions

of learning in TAFE and university contexts (a qualitative study).

The Blake and Smith (2007) research used a framework of conceptions of learn-ing developed by Marton, DallAlba, and Beaty (1993). Those workers identified six

hierarchically related conceptions of learning: (1) Learning as increasing ones

knowledge the consumption of already existing information; (2) Learning as memo-

rising and reproducing for a purpose such as a test; (3) Learning as applying, wherethe learner applies what is learned as the need arises such as driving skills or

manual tasks; (4) Learning as understanding and the abstraction of meaning devel-

oping meaning from learning, developing a point of view; (5) Learning as seeing

something in a different way, an interpretative process aiming at understanding real-

ity; (6) Learning is changing as a person. The research explored what students had

identified as the learning orientation they were asked to pursue in the school setting,and in the workplace/TAFE setting. The results indicated that for each of the Marton,

DallAlba, and Beaty (1993) conceptions there were differences between the two

settings in how much each conception was valued. As a brief summary, students sawthat the workplace/TAFE learning settings were more self-directed and the learning

intents were more related to applications of knowledge rather than to conceptual

learning and abstraction.

Fuller (1999) suggested that learners do not hold only one conception of learning,

but that they hold multiple conceptions, perhaps in different relative strengths, andthat the relative strengths might change in response to different learning situations.

Consistent with that view, and identifying and measuring a number of conceptions oflearning, is the quantitatively-based Conceptions of Learning Inventory (COLI) ques-

tionnaire developed by Purdie and Hattie (2002). That questionnaire was developedthrough their research with a number of different learner and ethnic groups in Austra-

lian high schools and has been subjected to a rigorous set of psychometric processes

to yield a final 32-item instrument with technical data support. The COLI measures

six identified conceptions of learning for each individual learner:

Learning as gaining information

Learning as remembering, using and understanding information Learning as a duty

Learning as personal change

Learning as a process not bound by time or place

Learning as the development of social competence


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In the present research we are interested in how students differ as a function of being

socialised to different conceptions of learning through their exposure to VET or touniversity pedagogy and assessment. There is evidence that the conceptions of learn-

ing held by individual students are at least a partial result of the conceptions to which

they have been exposed. For example, Eklund-Myrskog (1996), using the Marton,

DallAlba, and Beaty (1993) conceptions of learning, showed that, among teacher

education students in Sweden, there was evidence that students had been socialisedinto some common conceptions of learning but that, at the same time, students inde-

pendently selected conceptions of learning that they believed suited the context and

their learning intent. The study by Eklund-Myrskog (1996) also indicated students can

adapt and develop their conceptions of learning to meet new contexts and newdemands. A study by Burnett, Pillay, and Dart (2003) showed that high school

students who adopted a deep approach liked learning new things and displayed a

conception of learning as personal development, and a conception of instruction as

experiential involving social interaction. Importantly, the authors suggest that teachers

can develop practices to assist students to move towards those conceptions and toview learning as personal development. A later literature review by Eklund-Myrskog

(1998) also suggests that students conceptions of learning are influenced by learning

context, such that the relative strengths with which different conception are held can

vary within individuals at different times.Lindberg (2003) has explored the notion of vocational knowing and vocational

education in schools, as a source of tension. Her findings suggest that vocational

knowing is situated judgement that consists of a language that is appropriate to the

vocation, and that tacit knowledge connects these. She contrasts this with knowing in

school that is described as developing the capacities to learn in different contexts.

Similarly, Harris et al. (1998) have pointed to different orientations towards learningthat occur between apprentices, their VET teachers, and their employers. Employers

tended to have a behaviourist conception that was largely interested in performance

on the job, teachers were more characterised by a humanistic orientation that wasinterested in personal development for the apprentice as well as skills development,

while the apprentices tended towards a cognitive view that was interested in the

processes through which they learned. Dalton and Smith (2004) also noted the signif-

icant pedagogical and epistemological challenges to secondary school teachers who

have become involved in teaching VET subjects.In their review of the introduction of competency based training to VET in the

Netherlands, Biemans et al. (2004) indirectly point to the challenge to some concep-tions of learning that are framed around a focus understanding and reflective practice.

The challenge here can be, as they point out, particularly difficult in environmentswhere CBT is seen as the unquestioned acquisition of knowledge to be reproduced to

demonstrate competence, or to be applied in narrowly defined situations. In the

Australian VET context, Foley and Smith (2002) noted the same tension as teachers

moved from a curriculum approach to a training package approach.

The available literature was sufficient to suggest to us that it is reasonable toexpect there may be different conceptions of learning held by different cohorts of

students as a partial result of previous education or training experience. The pragmatic

value of this research lies in the increasing boundary blurring that we have discussed

above. As learners and their teachers are exposed to the different sectors there is aneed to develop cross-sectoral understanding of what learning can mean if we are to

avoid confusion in expected learning outcomes and learning experiences.


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We also investigated gender as an independent variable since there is some

suggestion in the literature that male and female conceptions of learning may havesome differences. For example, Meit et al. (2007), in their longitudinal study of over

two thousand medical students, found that females were more dutiful and persevering

in their studies, more self-disciplined and more likely to be self-doubting. Smith and

Miller (2005) also provided evidence that female students accept their learning and its

tasks more as a form of duty than do their male counterparts.

Method

The present paper reports on a quantitative study using Purdie and Hatties (2002)

Conceptions of Learning Inventory (COLI) questionnaire. The COLI is a well-

developed instrument using Likert scale responses. Responses to individual questions

are summed to provide a score on each of the six scales. Our research also generatedqualitative data derived from semi-structured interviews with 20 students who had

previously studied TAFE courses and six of their lecturers in the two universitycourses. Because all of our previously-VET participants actually came from TAFE

institutes, from here on we will refer to them as previously-TAFE.A total of one hundred and thirty seven students participated in the quantitative

aspect of the study, with 20 of the previously-TAFE students being invited to partici-

pate in interviews. The students were drawn from two courses of study at an Australian

university. The first was a graduate course in teacher education where there was entry

available on the basis of previous university undergraduate course completion or on abasis of previous VET course completion. The second course was a bachelors degree

in early childhood education where students entered the course on the basis of a

successful completion of a childrens services course in the VET sector. In all casesthe VET qualifications previously completed were at sub-degree level, with learningframed around competency statements and assessment also competency based.

For the quantitative component of the research the students were tested with the

COLI in the first year of their enrolment in their university course in order to reduce

the convergent effect in their conceptions of learning that might be expected as they

shared a common learning context over time. Because we needed to negotiate accessto these students at different times we were not able to control how far into that year

they were at the time of testing. Accordingly, some were tested in their first semester

while others were not tested until the beginning of their second semester.

The semi-structured interviews were conducted after the students had completedthe COLI. During the interviews students were asked to discuss:

differences between their TAFE and university experiences in the way learning

is conceived; which ways of thinking about learning are most valued in the TAFE and

university settings;

differences in approaches to assessment they have experienced between TAFE

and university and any challenges brought about by these differences; any development as a learner experienced in the transition from TAFE to

university;

any advice they would offer for other students making the same transition.

In the interviews with the course lecturers they were asked to discuss these aspects of

their previously-TAFE students transition from TAFE to university.


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The interviews were audio-recorded and the data transcribed to text to assist anal-

ysis. The researchers looked for patterns and themes emerging across the partici-pants responses to each of the discussion areas, with particular attention being given

to the ways students and lecturers were talking about different conceptions of learn-

ing.

The mean age of respondents to the COLI was 30.67 years with a standard devi-

ation of 9.39 years and a range from 20 years to 55. The distribution of gender andentry basis either through previous TAFE or university experience is shown in

Table 1.

Ethics clearance for the study was provided by Deakin University Research Ethics

Committee. For the quantitative component of the study, students were approached inregular classes and invited to fill out the COLI on a voluntary basis and return the

completed questionnaire to an anonymous box. In that way any sense of coercion to

participate was removed since the researchers did not know who had responded to the

questionnaire and who had not.

Results

Quantitative Results

The data from the COLI provided a measure for each participant on each of theconceptions. These scores were compared using a two-way between groups analysis

of variance applied to each of the six COLI scales as the dependent variable in each

case, and with gender and TAFE or university prior experience as the two independent

variables.

The COLI poses participants 32 questions they respond to through a six pointLikert scale of Very strongly disagree to Very strongly agree. Scores on each of

the COLI scales are calculated by summing the Likert scores on each of the itemsassigned to the scale.

In the tables below we have used the same abbreviations for each of the COLIscales as were developed by Purdie and Hattie (2002):

Learning as gaining information abbreviated as INFO. This scale contains 5questions, giving a minimum score of 5 and a maximum of 30. The questions

asked in this scale are about the learning of new factual information.

Learning as remembering, using and understanding information abbreviated

as RUU. This scale contains 9 questions, giving a minimum score of 9 and amaximum of 54. The questions asked in this scale are about remembering

information and recalling it to apply it when needed.

Learning as a duty abbreviated as DUTY. This scale contains 3 questions,

giving a minimum score of 3 and a maximum of 18. This scale asks questions

Table 1. Distribution of COLI respondents by gender and previous TAFE or universityexperience.

Male Female Total

Previously-TAFE 9 44 53

Previously university 27 57 84

Total 36 101 137


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to do with the need to keep on with learning and studying irrespective of the

difficulties encountered. Learning as personal change abbreviated as PERS. This scale contains 8 ques-

tions, giving a minimum score of 8 and a maximum of 48. The questions here

are about learning contributing to seeing things in life in new or better ways, and

contributing to self-development. Learning as a process not bound by time or place abbreviated as PROC. This

scale contains 3 questions, giving a minimum score of 3 and a maximum of 18.

These questions are focussed on issues of learning through daily experience and

learning as part of life.

Learning as the development of social competence abbreviated as SOC. This

scale contains 4 questions, giving a minimum score of 4 and a maximum of 24.These questions are about understanding others, developing good relationships

and contributing to common sense.

The ANOVA results for each COLI scale are shown in Tables 2 to 7 below.The non-significant results for main effects and for the interaction, shown in Table

2, indicate that the conception of learning as gaining information was not influenced

by gender, by whether there was previous TAFE or university experience, and neitherwas there interaction between those two independent variables.

Results at Table 3 indicate that the conception of learning as remembering, using

and understanding information was not influenced by gender, by previous TAFE or

university experience, and neither was there interaction between those two indepen-dent variables.

Table 4 results indicate that females held a stronger conception of learning as a duty

than did males. The mean score for females was 12.39 as opposed to 11.86 for males.The gender difference is only weakly significant at p


9/17


for previously university students there was no such gender difference. Because of the

weak level of significance and small effect size we have not shown the interaction in

graphical form in this paper.Table 5 indicates that students from the previously-TAFE cohort held a signifi-

cantly higher level of learning as personal change (mean 39.15) than did the previ-

ously-university cohort (mean 37.23). While the result is statistically significant, again

the effect size is quite small.

Table 6 indicates that females held a weakly significant higher level (mean 15.69)of a conception of learning as a process not bound by time or place than did males

(mean 14.83), with a weak effect size. Previously-TAFE students also had a higher

level of that conception of learning (mean 16.08) than did previously-university

students (mean 15.08), with a small effect size.Table 7 indicates females had a higher level of the learning as the development of

social competence conception (mean 17.63) than did males (mean 16.36), with a

relatively small effect size.

Table 4. ANOVA results for the learning as a duty scale.

DUTY df F sig effect size

Gender (G) 1,133 3.07


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Qualitative Results

Analysis of the semi-structured interviews with students and lecturers yielded concep-

tions of learning that were more commensurate with those proposed by Marton,

DallAlba and Beaty (1993) than they were to the conceptions identified by the COLI.

That analysis of the interview data revealed several qualitative differences in the wayparticipants discussed conceptions of learning experienced at TAFE and university.

These have been summarised in Table 8 below.

The researchers noted several other themes emerging from the semi-structured

interviews with students and lecturers. In the first instance, the lecturers consideredthat previously-TAFE students required more assistance in writing for university

assessment tasks than other students. It was observed that their first essays often

reflected good work-related literacy skills that would support reporting facts in a brief

summary style; however the lecturers noted that few previously-TAFE hadcommenced the course with the ability to write a well-structured and well-argued

essay. This is a task that also required the students to read more extensively than they

had been used to. Several students also made this observation in their interviews,

noting that one of the biggest challenges was to develop skills in writing academic

essays and referencing ideas appropriately.The need for the previously-TAFE students to become more independent as learn-

ers also emerged in the interviews. Some lecturers noted that they would refer the

students to the Study Skills support staff at the university and understood that this was

a very important support mechanism for previously-TAFE students to develop theirindependences as learners. Several students reported that they were aware of the need

to develop these skills and were constantly seeking feedback from lecturers in this

regard. Although there were differences in the amount of additional study support

university lecturers were willing to provide for the students, all considered it essentialthat the students develop an independent approach to their learning and viewed theirprevious attendance at TAFE as not adequately valuing this aspect of learning.

Previously-TAFE students frequently discussed a high degree of anxiousness they

experienced at the very start of their university course because they were unsure if

they could bridge the gap they had been told by family, friends and lecturers toexpect between university and TAFE contexts. It appears the gap is not insurmount-

able, however, and the students often referred to expressions such as raising the bar

and other terms consistent with learning as personal development. The following

response from a student captures several of the themes expressed by the previously-

TAFE students:

I was very nervous before starting the uni course because I always believed it would beso much more demanding than TAFE I had always been told that the gap between uniand TAFE was enormous. What we learned in TAFE was much more black and whiteand often we would just take notes from a teacher it was usually pretty easy tocomprehend. At uni we learn stuff that is often greynot simply right or wrong. I wasafraid of struggling in class and of all the extra reading, writing and the referencingfor uni. At uni you have to raise the bar it challenges you to think about what you aresaying and what you have learnt maybe its not always about the correct answer ButI have been pleasantly surprised as there is much more support than even at TAFE andthe teachers are much more approachable than I thought they would be I find the

online discussion really helpful when we are off campus and I use them a lot. I think Ivebeen able to make the adjustment and I know I have more confidence.

[Previously-TAFE male, 25 years old]


11/17


12/17


Table8.

(Continued).

Learning

as

DifferencesbetweenTAFEanduniversityasexpr

essedinpreviously-TAFEstudentsandlecturerssemi-stru

ctured

interviews

Seeing

someth

ingina

differentway

Students:

averysignificantpartofthelearningexperienceinuniversitycontexts;

reportedseeingtheirworkplace/practicedifferentlyasaconsequenceoflearning.

UniversityLecturers

:

seenasanimporta

ntandvaluableconceptionofle

arningtodevelopfromt

heiruniversityexperience;

notedsomeprevio

usly-TAFEstudentshadchange

dtheirviewsaroundpracticeas

aresultoftheirlearningatuniv

ersity.

Changing

asa

person

Students

severalstudentsnotedtheirexperienceasauniver

sitystudentinvolvedchanginga

sapersonasaconsequenceoft

heirlearning

andchangestothe

waytheyunderstoodtheirprac

tice;

changingasapers

oninvolvedgainingahigherde

greeofself-confidencefrome

xp

eriencingsuccessfullearningin

auniversity

context.

UniversityLecturers

:

ahighdegreeofv

ariabilityforthistypeoflearnin

gtooccurasitwasdependento

ntheindividualstudentsperson

alitiesand

situations.


13/17


Discussion

Looking across all the results from this study would indicate that students coming into

university on the basis of their previous VET experience do not hold particularly

different conceptions of learning from those whose previous experience has been at

university. That is consistent with earlier finding by Smith (2001) who showed thatthere were few differences between TAFE and university students in their learning

preferences, even though their pedagogical experiences had been quite different. It is

also an encouraging finding for practice, since the potential difficulties we envisaged

for students who are crossing boundaries appear to be less insurmountable that mighthave otherwise been expected.

We just need to be a little careful with that finding insofar as our study here has

been limited in number, to one measurement instrument, and two groups of students

who have both eventually joined together in university. It is possible that TAFEstudents who do cross the boundary into a degree program at university are a group

who consider the move achievable, and who feel capable in tackling the different

learning environment. We would prefer to do some further research comparing some

other groups who are subjected to boundary crossing before we become too convinced

that the result from this study is representative of most boundary crossing.One major difference between the students in this study and many who are in

multiple learning environments is that our participants on this occasion have all made

the crossing voluntarily they were all enrolled in their university course because they

had chosen to pursue further study in that environment. There are other students, mostparticularly VET in Schools students, for whom participation in the different environ-

ments is a compulsory part of the experience. The earlier Blake and Smith (2007)

research, which did note some differences between the conceptions of learning typi-

cally noted by students in different learning environments was focussed on VET inSchools students for whom school, TAFE and workplace learning were each acompulsory part of their program. However, the Blake and Smith study also identified

that students noted these differences, but did not examine the conceptions of learning

held by the students themselves.

A further need to be cautious with our results is that we tested half of our studentsin their first semester of enrolment in their university course, and half in their second

semester. In his 1998 study Eklund-Myrskog found that exposure to learning context

influenced student conceptions of learning. In the same way as our study was designed

to test the influence of previous learning context on conception of learning, it can be

expected that the current learning context also had an influence, with that influencebeing greater for those we tested in their second semester.

The current research has shown some results that are worth noting and discussing

briefly here, even though they are not claimed as strong and robust. However, in a

paper that is starting to explore a relatively new set of issues relating to the blurringof boundaries, it is worth giving them some attention.

Focussing first on differences between previously-TAFE and previously university

students, we have shown:

For learning as a duty previously-TAFE females had a significantly higher score

than previously-TAFE males, but for previously university students there was

no such gender difference; For learning as personal change the previously-TAFE cohort scored higher than

the previously university cohort;


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For the learning as a process not bound by time or space scale the previously-

TAFE students scored higher than the other group.

The findings on these last two scales are particularly interesting in that they indicate

that the previously-TAFE students have a broad view of learning that includes itsimpact on them as people and a notion that learning is a part of ongoing life. Coming

off a learning experience in TAFE that is understood to be more focussed on the

development of vocational competencies to be applied to the workplace, these are

interesting findings indeed. The findings on these two scales also have a consistencyand coherence with each other. One partial explanation for these findings is that the

connectedness of TAFE studies to the workplace provides a stronger integration of

work, learning and life than studies largely undertaken within the walls of academia.

A second explanation may be associated with the students themselves, in that people

who have those broader conceptions of learning are more likely to be those whomigrate from one educational sector to another to further their education and training

in a new environment.The finding that females from TAFE backgrounds have a stronger conception of

learning as a duty we suggest may be similar to findings by Meit et al. (2007). In theirlongitudinal study of over two thousand medical students they found that females

were more dutiful and persevering in their studies, more self-disciplined and more

likely to be self-doubting. Smith and Miller (2005) also provided evidence that female

students accept their learning and its tasks more as a form of duty than do their male

counterparts. It is not uncommon in the literature for research to show female studentsto be more characterised by fear of failure than males (e.g. Richardson, Morgan, and

Woodley 1999). We are not able to provide any ready explanation of why our finding

was associated only with the females from TAFE backgrounds, but it is possible thatthe high representation of females from the childrens services area may have hadsome impact on the result for the duty scale.

The findings related to gender can be summarised as:

The higher TAFE female scores on the learning as a duty scale have been

discussed above in the context of previous TAFE or university experience; Females scored higher than males on the learning as a process not bound by time

or space scale;

Females scored higher than males on the learning as the development of social

competence scale.

The latter two findings, taken together, indicate that females in our study have devel-

oped conceptions of learning that are more strongly (than the males) integrated into

their lives such that learning occurs in a wide range of circumstances, and has impacts

on their development as people. There is some evidence for this from Eklund-Myrskogs 1998 study with car mechanic and nursing students. Additionally, while in

this study we have not tested studying approaches, Meyer, Dunne, and Richardson

(1994) have shown that where females do use a deep approach they are more likely to

look for personal meaning and connections in their learning, while other research bySeveriens and Ten Dam (1994) indicates that males have a greater affinity for learning

that is impersonal and external to themselves.

From the qualitative data it is apparent that both students and lecturers exhibit a

hierarchy of values placed on the different conceptions of learning commonly


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experienced in the TAFE and university settings. In the university setting this hierar-

chy places memorising and simple knowledge acquisition at the lower end of thescale, while learning conceived as understanding, abstraction and deep personal

growth are valued most of all. Students from previously-TAFE settings are presented

with the sociological challenges that arise from their prior attendance at a TAFE insti-

tution, where the most valued conceptions of learning may not coincide with those in

their university context. Drawing on Fullers (1999) suggestion that learners holdmultiple conceptions of learning in different strengths, and the quantitative results of

this present study, this means that previously-TAFE students are required to adjust the

way they value different conceptions of learning to suite their university context. The

students who participated in this study demonstrated that this re-adjustment is possiblewith adequate support, however as noted above it would be dangerous to conclude that

this is the case for all previously-TAFE students without interviewing a broader range

of students from other courses of study.

Finally, the study has showed that both the set of learning conceptions proposed

by Purdie and Hattie (2002) in the COLI, and those proposed by Marton, DallAlbaand Beaty (1993) have value in this sort of investigation. We suggest that there is

room in further research to test the effectiveness of both these sets of proposed

conceptions, but also to be mindful of new and different conceptions that may be

shown to be present in new learning contexts and contextual shifts.

Conclusions

Using the COLI and a set of quantitative measures, the current study has shown some

differences in the conceptions of learning as they are held by students who have

entered university on a basis of previous TAFE experiences or previous universityexperiences. While those differences provide some support for our hypothesis that

there are differences important enough to be taken account of as students work more

often today between different educational contexts, the results at a quantitative levelare not, in our view, important enough to warrant any major focus of attention from a

policy or a pedagogical viewpoint. In terms of the quantitative differences between the

students in our sample our contention is that they are sufficiently small that students

will largely be able to bridge the differences without great difficulty if adequate

support is provided.The qualitative component of the research, however, has shown some interesting

and subtle differences between the conceptions of learning held by participants in thestudy; and has also indicated that it is useful to use more than one conceptions of

learning framework in this form of quite exploratory research. The qualitative dataindicates some subtleties in the way some conceptions of learning are held, and these

subtleties are worthy of further exploration with a wider set of participants.

A limitation of the results from our study is their basis in one particular set of

participants in limited contexts, and using only one measurement tool. We suggest that

there is value in repeating our research with other groups and instruments before therecan be confidence about the conclusions we have reached. Other researchers (e.g.

Eklund-Myrskog 1996, 1998) have shown differences due to context, but these have

been revealed through qualitative research methods. Consistently with that, while our

research has not shown any strong quantitative differences in conceptions of learningas a function of exposure to different learning environment, it is apparent through the

qualitative data (and, to a lesser degree, the quantitative too) that students are required


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to adjust the value placed on different conceptions of learning as they move from a

TAFE setting to a university.

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