Abstract
Learning approaches, i.e. students’ learning strategies and motives, predict academic performance but it is not clear how much variance they share with intelligence and personality. Here, the relationship of the Big Five personality traits, intelligence, and Typical Intellectual Engagement (TIE) with deep, achieving and surface learning was explored in a sample of 579 British undergraduate students. A structural equation model showed that (a) intelligence was negligibly associated with learning approaches; (b) TIE was strongly related to all three types of learning approaches; (c) deep learning shared the greatest amount of variance with TIE, while (d) achieving learning was best explained by Extraversion, Openness to Experience, and Conscientiousness. Only 25% of the variance in surface learning was accounted for by intelligence and personality. Thus, personality traits and learning approaches share much variance but not enough to dismiss either construct as redundant.
Highlights
Students differ in their preferred learning strategies and motives, and these differences are thought to be associated with academic performance outcomes (e.g. Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2008; Duff, 2004; Furnham, 2011)
Typical Intellectual Engagement (TIE) was significantly correlated with intelligence and all motives and strategies with coefficients ranging from À.36 to .56; overall, TIE showed the greatest overlap with learning approaches
The current study tested the associations of the Big Five, TIE and intelligence with learning approaches
Summary
Students differ in their preferred learning strategies and motives, and these differences are thought to be associated with academic performance outcomes (e.g. Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2008; Duff, 2004; Furnham, 2011). Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2008) but overlap with personality traits (e.g. Duff, Boyle, Dunleavy, & Ferguson, 2004; Furnham, Monsen, & Ahmetoglu, 2009). Together motives and strategies inform learning approaches, which are unrelated to intelligence While their relationship with academic performance is multilayered (Haggis, 2003), it is unknown to what extent learning approaches are explained by personality traits and intelligence. Three learning approaches are differentiated: deep, achieving and surface learning (Biggs, 1987). Surface learners only learn those facts that are indispensable to pass, thereby applying minimum but highly targeted
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