Learning approaches: a comparison between ‘mature’ and ‘conventional’ business students

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study identifies significant differences between the learning approaches of mature and ‘conventional’ students, answering the call for more empirical insights into mature students’ learning experiences. The study uses a survey approach, collecting data with the Biggs SPQ Instrument, involving 204 university students in Ghana, and applies various statistical analyses to test for significant differences in mean responses. The results of the study confirm the preference for deep and strategic learning among mature students, but departs from the existing empirical finding, albeit fast-evolving, that conventional students prefer surface learning. It will seem, that the growing relevance of intrinsic motivational reasons for academic pursuit even among conventional students, perhaps due to the reality of non-existing jobs after graduation, has shifted students’ motivations with subsequent effects on the approaches to learning. Another reason could be the visible efforts by higher education institutions to improve students’ study experience and engage them in developing higher-order cognitive skills. Therefore, even though prior life experiences impact learning approaches, current and future contextual estimations by students also affect their current actions. This is the first application of a dataset from Ghana to the study of learning approaches and also the highest known reliability score for surface approaches using the SPQ instrument.