What Matters for Approaches to Learning: The Student Socioeconomic Background or the Learning Environment?

• In Event: Student Development and Learning Amid Class, Careers, and Crisis

Abstract

How students approach their learning process is important to achieve high-quality learning outcomes as students who adopt a deep approach, seeking meaningful understanding of the content, present better learning outcomes than their peers who employ unreflective approaches. Research has mainly focused on the association between learning approaches and the learning environment and less attention has been paid to the relationship with the students’ socioeconomic background. Using data from Chile, we investigate the relationship between approaches to learning, socioeconomic background, and student’s perceptions of the learning environment. Understanding these relationships can help to overcome the deficit discourse, where low socioeconomic students are blamed for their struggles in higher education, which often arises when countries begin to diversify their student population.

Authors

• Paula Clasing-Manquian, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile

• Carlos Gonzalez, Universidad Catolica de Chile