Exploring the relationship between students' orientations to learning, the structure of students' learning outcomes and subsequent academic performance

Abstract

This paper discusses a study of 966 undergraduate Accounting students enrolled in a large Australian Business School, to investigate the relationship between two factors obtained on entry to higher education and students' subsequent academic performance (where academic performance is measured by aggregate final grades). The two factors explored are: students' orientations to learning on entry to university, as measured by a modified version of the Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) (Biggs 1987c); and the structure of students' learning outcomes as measured by scoring students' responses on a comprehension task completed on entry to university using the Biggs and Collis' SOLO taxonomy (1982). Findings indicate that 25% of the students entering higher education exhibited the ‘relational’ and ‘extended abstract’ SOLO levels in the comprehension task administered. Furthermore, SOLO scores were significantly positively correlated with academic grades, and there was a significant negative relationship between students' SPQ surface scores and academic grades. The findings provide insights into trends relating to students ‘at risk’, and suggest that students entering higher education demonstrating lower SOLO scores are at a higher risk of failure than those entering at the higher SOLO scores. The findings serve to signal areas for attention in relation to facilitating student learning. The paper considers the implications of these findings for teaching and learning in business and accounting education.

Keywords:

• orientations to learning
• SOLO taxonomy
• academic performance
• students at risk
• accounting/business education

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Ursula Lucas and the reviewers for their very helpful comments on earlier drafts of the paper. We would also like to thank Michael Makaroff for his assistance with the data analysis and the late Professor William Birkett for his support in making this study possible.

Notes

Extracts from the unit outlines for Accounting 1A and 1B given to students in this study. Accounting 1A: ‘… we address a number of component objectives: … to develop critical skills in analysing arguments … to consider the difference between accounting as a discipline and as a social phenomena …’ Accounting 1B: ‘… seek to develop; analytical and design skills associated with accounting practice … analytical, theoretical and research tools which are used in fashioning plausible explanations … are introduced. … As an outcome it is expected that skills in the evaluation of literature and the presentation (both written and verbal) of analysis and sustainable arguments will develop.’

There are also a number of studies comparing the approaches of ‘local’ students with the approaches of international students from Asia (Chan et al., 1989; Biggs, 1990; Kember and Gow, 1991; Gow et al., 1994; Niles, 1995; Watkins, 1998; Ramburuth and McCormick, 2001). Exploring culture effects on orientations to learning is beyond the scope of the study.

This article was selected by a panel of language testing experts (after conducting a review of several general business articles), because of its relevance to students across a Business Faculty with a wide range of majors.

The modification involved deleting all of the achieving approach items and is not the revised 2-factor SPQ by Biggs et al., 2001.