Learning is all about a successful interaction by the learner with the learning environment and his/her teachers. Success from the learner‘s perspective is apparent to lead development of independent learning (IL). Learning independently is in fact an individual activity where the learner‘s role is prominent; however its development can be assisted by the teachers; indicating that teaching and learning are part of each other.
Thus, searching and looking both diametrically and circumferentially at students‘ approaches to learning, the current study highlights the mainstream factors that drive the process of learning in higher education (HE). The current chapter reviewed and discussed those prominent research findings and the factors which can shape the development of IL. First this chapter reviewed the internationalisation trend which is beneficial in the long term for HE. Later we reviewed the teaching and learning
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practices and how they relate differently in different learning environments, in particular the way Asian students interface the associated issues in the process of developing their approaches to learning. Similarly, this chapter identified the prevailing concepts that underpin the very development of IL in the shadow of modern learning theories by highlighting the recent theoretical understanding which has closer relation to students‘ approaches to learning. In the next stage the review tried to locate a link of students‘ approaches to prior learning history and discussed the Asian HE systems to locate the link between prior learning and IL skills.
Furthermore, the chapter critically discussed whether a learning approach is a developmental issue among different students in HE; and discussed how surface, deep and strategic learning works in relation to HE learning. The review also explored whether there is subject-specific link to approaches to learning that can influence the development of IL in different disciplines. Following the review, language relevance to learning was explored, and the role of support and cultural relevancy to approaches to learning; and the way they influence Asian students‘ in HE. Folding the review, IL was thoroughly explored as an issue and the relevant role of language which influences its development.
Thus, IL is not a question of how to learn independently (CIEL, 2000) but more of how to learn well independently and how to develop IL within a population of Asian students in the UK; leading to adjustment. Hence IL practices, with the notion of support and adequate language skills have still room for developing and – one way to explore this is what can best be done by knowing students‘ own perceptions of it. In order to investigate students own perceptions about the journey of IL, a sound methodological approach is pertinent. Therefore, the next chapter is about the methodological approach used in this study to devise a strategy towards uncovering students‘ views about the development of IL in the UK.
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CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGICAL DESIGN
3.1 Introduction
The aim of the current study is to explore students‘ perceptions of approaches to learning in the UK higher education system, in order to generate a theory of independent learning (IL) development. The previous chapter reviewed the literature pertinent to Asian students studying in the UK and extensively explored those concepts which relate to approaches to learning. All relevant issues were also explored in detail. The literature review revealed that investigating students‘ views would be a more useful approach. Therefore I have adopted a qualitative interpretivist approach to gather students‘ opinions about the way they develop IL and cope with the associated issues.
In this chapter, I have explained the chosen a qualitative interpretivist approach in detail. In this study, I used an initial qualitative questionnaire and three stages of interviews in addition to using personal narratives (Bold, 2012). I combined an online questionnaire (see Newby, 2010) and semi-structured interviews, (see Simon & Barbara, 2007; Kvale, 2007; Hannan, 2007) with a three-stage formula – as Morse (2007) suggests in Grounded Theory (GT) method, in this study. This process helped me to combine personal narratives with those views obtained from students. Considering Twigg‘s view (2006) of combining different data collection methods (2007), whilst relying on a qualitative approach, I used a qualitative questionnaire in combination with one stage of semi-structured interviews in the first phase to establish a clear picture of a range of learning issues, followed by two more interview stages (Stages 2 & 3) to clarify a fuller view of approaches to IL by Asian students in the UK and to generate a learning theory.
Some studies have used questionnaires and interviews for data collection purposes using Grounded Theory (GT), adopting various samples (e.g. Goh, 2011; Twigg, 2006; Tian, 2008). I have used questionnaire and interviews, as data collection methods, and GT approach - “a qualitative research method that uses a systematic set of procedures to develop an inductively derived grounded theory about a phenomenon” (Strauss & Corbin, 1998: p.24) in this study. I used the Strausurrian and Corbin, and Charmaz‘s
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version of constructing GT which is a comprehensive methodological approach in comparison to other methods, e.g. Thematic Analysis (TA), giving me more freedom to construct and interpret meaning of students‘ understandings of their own views (see Charmaz, 2006; Braun & Clarke, 2006; Heist, 2012). Thus, this chapter discusses how data is collected; and how the main themes and categories are emerged through GT (Charmaz, 2006), and how a theory is developed from students‘ own perceptions.