Assessing the Learning Processes of Black South African Students

Abstract

Data based on responses of 126 male and 201 female 14- and 15-year-old Black South African secondary school students showed the Learning Process Questionnaire (LPQ; Biggs, 1987) to be fairly reliable and factorially valid. Comparison with the LPQ means for like-aged students from Australia and Hong Kong called into question the common assertion that Black South African students are more prone to use superficial learning processes than are Western students. In particular, the South African responses to the LPQ indicated that they were less shallow and more oriented toward achievement in their approach to learning than the Australian students were.

An Analysis of the Relationship Between the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and the Learning Process Questionnaire

“…Associated with each learning approach is a motive (intrinsic/extrinsic) and strategy resulting in six subscales. Applications of the LPQ in three major cultural groups-Western (Andrews, Violato, Rabb & Hollingsworth, 1994;Biggs, 1987;Watkins, 1982), Asian (Biggs, 1992, Kember & Leung, 1998Sachs & Gao, 2000;Watkins, Dong, & Xia 1995;Wong, Lin, & Watkins, 1996), and African Watkins & Mboya, 1997;Watkins, Akande, & Mpofu, 1994) have shown it to be a reliable and valid instrument, too.…”

Students’ Approaches to Learning: Validating Study Processes Questionnaire for Use in Congolese Setting

“…They called for further qualitative studies to deepen understanding in relation to individual differences in terms of approaches to learning. They also questioned the belief that students from the South side of the world would exhibit more a surface approach than those from more developed countries (Watkins & Mboya, 1997).…”

“…However, black South African students' scores on all the subscales were higher than their Hong Kong and Australian counterparts. Watkins and Mboya (1997) concluded that the instrument was valid and moderately reliable. They called for further qualitative studies to deepen understanding in relation to individual differences in terms of approaches to learning.…”

“…The mentioned statement has been however widely interpreted as 'deep and surface approaches are mutually exclusive constructs' (Kember, 1996;Tormey, 2014;Watkins & Mboya, 1997;Xie, 2014). That gives rise to a debate and criticisms that might mainly be based on 'misinterpretations', given that Biggs and colleagues consider that the same student may flip from surface to deep approaches depending on his or her perceptions of the learning environments (Biggs et al, 2001;Leung et al, 2008).…”

“…The SPQ as well as its different versions is widely used to assess SAL. Initial studies in Africa have confirmed that the SPQ could be used as a valid instrument to assess SAL in this specific setting (Mogre & Amalba, 2014;Watkins & Mboya, 1997). However, investigations with respect to psychometric properties of this instrument have -to the best of our knowledge -never been systematically conducted in African French speaking countries.…”