72 THE EXPERIENCE OF LEARNING LEARNING ORIENTATIONS AND STUDY CONTRACTS 73

CHAPTER FIVE carry on with Social Sciences that’s probably the most valuable thing that I
feel that I personally got from the course. When I read a newspaper or
watch television or something I find that I am a lot more questioning than I
Learning Orientations and Study Contracts used to be.

I think the biggest thing is the confidence – that perhaps I am not as stupid
LIZ BEATY, GRAHAM GIBBS AND ALISTAIR MORGAN as I thought I was.
I suppose I’d have missed a lot of what I’ve learnt in relation to my work
Introduction about the psychology of work and that kind of thing and perhaps thinking
about things a bit deeper. Whereas I was inclined to take decisions fairly
Students join higher education with different aims. For some there is a wish to quickly on certain things, now I do have certain experience having studied a
continue their study of a particular subject, while for others their main concern is bit of psychology and sociology in places and I do try and perhaps see how
to progress towards a chosen career. For many students, however, their own things are going to interrelate and affect people – spend a bit more time on it
reasons for joining the university are affected by outside pressures from, for and be a bit more thoughtful than I was before.
example, family, school or employment. Then, students must discover what it is
possible to gain from the experience of higher education and how to study in I think it’s given me different ideas as to how I’ll approach my course next
year. I will take notes which I didn’t do this year – I didn’t know really what to
order to achieve their own, individual goals.
do and what not to do this year. So I’ll do quite a lot of things differently. I
This chapter describes the differences in students’ orientation to learning which think I’ll just approach the whole learning bit, if you like, differently next time.
affect their study patterns and strongly influence their experience of learning. And what else have I learnt? – I suppose on a personal level I’ve learnt to
The interviews on which this research is based, carried out with Open University use my time effectively.
students and in Surrey University, showed that students develop more or less
Besides gaining an understanding of the course content, which may be the
explicit strategies to work in particular ways in order to gain maximum value
teacher’s main aim, students mention the personal and affective aspects of study;
from the experience. This does not mean that they work equally hard however,
gaining in confidence, changing in attitudes, and increasing critical awareness
and the focus of their effort will be on different aspects of the experience. It is
and scepticism. As teachers and researchers, we may be too ready to accept
also clear from studies described in earlier chapters that students differ in their
students’ assessment grades and their understanding of the course content as the
sophistication as learners. For some, therefore, greater effort does not yield a
sole measure of success. It is clear from these quotations, however, that from the
better outcome of learning. In understanding student learning, we need to look at
students’ point of view other aspects can be equally important.
the interaction between orientation, approach, and conceptions. We also need to
In higher education in recent years there has been a focus on transferable
consider how far students develop and change during their period in higher
skills for future employment. The kind of higher education most useful to future
education.
employers has become an area of intense debate and courses have increasingly
To highlight students’ overall experience of learning or their perceptions of
included more emphasis on transferable skills. In Britain, the Enterprise in Higher
gains from study, consider the following replies to the question – “What have you
Education programme has been successful in supporting this movement (Elton,
learnt from the course?”. The quotations from six students, who had just completed
1994). In describing the learner’s orientation to education, we must take account
a foundation course in Social Science at the Open University, show that it is
of both institutional and personal contexts for study. What are the formal demands
possible to gain very many different kinds of things from the same course (Taylor
of the assessment system? What sort of understandings are valued and rewarded
et al., 1982).
by the formal curriculum? What are students’ aims and purposes in engaging in a
I’ve learnt about the different disciplines and about the way the society’s course of study?
changed over the centuries since the industrial revolution and how this has
changed everything.
The Social Context of Learning
. . . well basically an insight into methods of looking at different things. I
mean, it was so broad, it has set things in perspective and so it’s a good The institutional context
introduction to different facets of the subject. The way different disciplines
In previous chapters the outcome of learning has been described as a change in
will look at something, different attitudes of the sociologist and the more
specific examination of an individual that a psychologist would make. conception of some concept, issue, or aspect of the world. The quotations above
show the diversity of these changes, while subsequent chapters will indicate the
I’ve learnt, I think, this business of being sceptical is quite a big thing. ways in which the institutional context and the learning environment influence
Questioning things a lot more. I think probably to live in the future, if I don’t the outcomes of learning.
74 THE EXPERIENCE OF LEARNING LEARNING ORIENTATIONS AND STUDY CONTRACTS 75
A similar interpretation of the effects of assessment was provided by Becker, The collegiate culture is the stereotype of college life, a world of sport and
Geer and Hughes (1968). In Making the Grade, they show how the “grade-point campus fun – some gesture is made to studying, but only in terms of the minimum
average perspective” pervaded the entire course experience for students and requirements to gain a degree. The vocational culture is focused on getting a
provided the background for their study. The grade-point average perspective qualification and gaining employment; here the engagement in ideas and
involved a “definition of the situation” by students who identified grades as the scholarship may be seen as a distraction, equivalent to sport and social activities.
most important force leading their actions. Students felt that getting good grades The academic culture, present on every campus, is the sub-culture of serious
defined success and that gaining these grades was of primary importance for their intellectual effort applied to the world of knowledge and ideas. Students pursue
college career. knowledge and understanding. Their symbols of the institution are the library,
There’s an awful lot of work being done up here for the wrong reason. I don’t the seminar group and teaching staff with the same inclinations. The non-
exactly know how to put it, but people are going through here and not conformist culture differs from other cultures in its detachment from the college.
learning anything at all... There’s a terrific pressure on everybody here to Students are involved with ideas and learning but their points of reference are off-
get good grades... There are a lot of courses where you can learn what’s campus groups. There exists in this distinctive student style a somewhat aggressive
necessary to get the grade and when you come out of the class you don’t non-conformist and critical detachment from the college. Clark and Trow
know anything at all. You haven’t learned a damn thing, really. In fact, if you
summarised this typology of sub-cultures in terms of two main dimensions – the
try to really learn something, it would handicap you as far as getting a grade
goes. degree to which students are involved with ideas and the extent to which students
identify with the college or institution.
The conflict between “getting the grade” and “really learning something” can
be seen as an unintended side-effect of the assessment system. The pervasive
TABLE 5.1
influence of assessment defined the institutional context for studying – the grade-
Types of Orientations of the Four Most Distinguishable Student Subcultures.
point average became the “Camp currency”.
(from Clark and Trow, 1966)
At a more general level, the interaction of the education institution and the
students can lead to particular sub-cultures. Clark and Trow (1966) described this
interaction as follows:
Involvement with Ideas
Two broad sets of factors shape the nature of the orientations and
relationships of students in college. The first set flows from the character of much little
the larger society. Students come to college with certain resources — much ACADEMIC COLLEGIATE
material, moral, intellectual, emotional and cultural. These resources are Identification
largely determined by the life experiences the students have had, and these with College little NON-CONFORMIST VOCATIONAL
in turn are shaped by the status they and their parents have held in the
larger society. The prior social locations and experiences also shape
aspiration: the kinds of lives the students envisage for themselves in a
rapidly changing society. The second set of determinants derives from the Clark and Trow use the term ‘orientations’ to mean the “defining elements of
nature of the colleges themselves; their historical development, their value student sub-cultures in which they appear as shared notions constitutes right attitude
climates, their structural features, and the shaping environment thus and action towards the range of issues and experiences confronted in college”.
provided for student life. A college is not simply an aggregation of students, This general use of orientation is rather different from what has been defined in
it also has qualities and characteristics which are to some extent
independent of the people who fill its halls and offices at any given moment. this chapter as a student’s learning orientation; the aims, values and purposes for
study – the personal context of study.
In our terms, Clark and Trow were showing how distinctive sub-cultures
emerged from the differing experiences of institutional and personal contexts of The personal context
learning with four main analytical categories used to describe these sub-cultures.
They are not describing types of student, as a student may well participate in How do students come to be taking a particular course? What are the aims and
several sub-cultures, and the actual sub-cultures that exist may well combine purposes in undertaking a course of study? With adult students these questions
aspects of more than one type. Rather the typology can be seen as “a heuristic are particularly important because of the voluntary nature of the education they
device for getting at the processes by which social structures shape student styles are engaged in.
of life in different kinds of colleges”. The four main sub-cultures were labelled The concept of motivation has been used to explain variations in students’
collegiate, vocational, academic and non-conformist within the framework shown capabilities for studying. However, there are problems with the use of this concept.
in Table 5.1. Firstly, it has been used in so many different ways, there is a lack of precise
76 THE EXPERIENCE OF LEARNING LEARNING ORIENTATIONS AND STUDY CONTRACTS 77
definition with regard to its meaning (Peters, 1958; Parlett, 1980). Secondly, it TABLE 5.2
has been used as an explanation of behaviour, which may not take enough account Student’s learning orientations
of the conscious control learners have over how and what they study. Motivation
is seen as a drive, students are viewed as being driven by factors out of their
control. Similarly, some goal direction theories tend to view students as responding Orientation Interest Aim Concerns
to stimuli, rather than actively constructing their own behaviour patterns. The
foci of traditional studies are the motivational factors which push and pull students
towards particular goals, for example, to pass an examination. Intrinsic Training Relevance of course to
Such ideas about motivation are based on theories derived from other contexts Vocational future career
which have been imposed on student learning without sufficient consideration of Extrinsic Qualification Recognition of
their ecological validity. Subsequent work on motivation, in relation to study qualification’s worth
processes (e.g. Biggs, 1978), has, however, developed constructs more closely
associated with the study situation and students’ intentions. The description of
personal context for study or learning orientation develops this work further, to Intrinsic Intellectual interest Choosing stimulating
provide a more holistic description of students’ motives and purposes. Academic lectures
Learning orientation is defined by “all those attitudes and aims which express Extrinsic Educational Grades and academic
the student’s individual relationship with a course of study and the university”, progression progress
(Taylor et al., 1981). It is the collection of purposes which form the personal
context for the individual student’s learning. The idea of an orientation assumes
that students have an active relationship with their studying. From the point of Intrinsic Broadening or Challenging, interesting
view of learning orientation, success and failure is judged in terms of the extent to Personal self-improvement material
which students fulfil their own aims. Orientation does not assume any state or Extrinsic Compensation or Feedback and passing the
trait belonging to the student; it is a quality of the relationship between the student proof of capability course
and the course rather than a quality inherent in the student, and so may change
over time. The analysis of learning orientation, therefore, does not set out to type
students, rather it sets out to identify and describe types of orientation and to Social Extrinsic Having a good time Facilities for sport and
show the implications of different types of orientation for the approach a student social activities
takes to learning.
Orientations to Learning
An interview study of students’ orientations to learning at Surrey University The Complexity of the Learner’s Orientation
(Taylor, 1983) identified four distinct types of orientation. These were academic
orientation, where the student’s goals involved the academic side of university It is important to recognise that the categories and sub-categories used to describe
life; vocational orientation, where the student’s goal was to get a job after orientations are simply an analytic framework and not descriptions of the types of
university; personal orientation, where the student’s goals were concerned with student found in the sample. In fact, any particular student’s orientation will usually
their personal development; and social orientation where the student’s goals be a complex mix of two or more of these orientational types. For example, many
focused on the social side of the university life. The first three of these orientations of the Open University students could clearly be seen to have mainly a personal
could be divided into two sub- types according to whether the student was directly orientation to learning, but many of them also showed evidence of vocational or
interested in the content of the course or whether they were studying the course academic orientations. To illustrate these joint orientations, and the complexity
more as a means to an end. These sub-types distinguished in each case between of individual students’ orientations, here is an example of a student who, while
intrinsic and extrinsic interest in the course. Taylor found that the concerns that primarily personally oriented, shows aspects of a vocational orientation.
students had while studying at university were intimately connected to the type of
orientation they had, and that these orientations and their concerns helped to make Well I hope to stop myself from turning into a complete cabbage – and to
sense of the amount of effort the student put into different aspects of the course widen my views on life and the problems – eventually I hope to get a degree
and university life (see Table 5.2). and possibly that will help me to get a job one day which I would like to do.
A further study at the Open University (Taylor et al., 1981) found all these But I think that is very much a secondary consideration.
categories, with the exception of the social orientation, among students taking the This quote shows clearly the primary personal aims, and the secondary
Social Science Foundation Course, Making Sense of Society. vocational aims, of this student. We can expect that both these aims will affect the
78 THE EXPERIENCE OF LEARNING LEARNING ORIENTATIONS AND STUDY CONTRACTS 79
student’s approach to the course and a detailed description of the orientation, work in the third year. They tended to criticise parts of the course where this sort
including the relative strength of these aims, should help us to understand the of choice was restricted.
particular student’s approaches to studying.
Similarly, where a student shows signs of having both personal and academic Academic Orientation — extrinsic Educational progression
orientations, both aspects will affect the student’s relationship with the course. A In this category students are primarily interested in progression through the
student who is personally oriented, but also academically oriented, might be educational system. They tend to have chosen the course because they had been
interested in personal development, but more in terms of the ideas to be explored successful in the subject at school, rather than study from an intellectual interest
in the subject than in becoming more capable in a general way. in the subject; that was thought of as ‘the next step’.
I am interested in man, in society and I realise how narrow a view I have I wanted to do something and I’ve done evening classes, but it wasn’t really
about the way society works, about what other people feel and do and why enough. I don’t know, I’ve got through that sort of stage.
they do these things. I got a bit from doing the A-level last year and I hope
that I get an awful lot more from doing the Social Science Foundation Well basically I am studying it because I did three ‘A’ levels and one of them
Course this year. was sociology. English doesn’t seem too good really unless you want to
teach and economics – well I find the maths difficult... I suppose most of my
In this quote one cannot distinguish clearly between the two orientations – work is for assessment. I do tend to try to work – to do my best as I can in
they seem to mingle together as one orientation in terms of the student’s own essays because they’re assessed. If you try to work hard you’ll get a good
experience. However, the separation produced by the use of these analytic mark then you haven’t got much pressure when it comes to the exams.
categories of orientation helps to unravel a student’s particular orientation and to Within this category, students are interested primarily in passing the courses
see the implications for approaches to studying. Further examples from the and getting the degree. They tend to be competitive and to lay great stress on
interview transcripts help to elaborate these categories of educational orientation. getting good grades. In contrast to the intrinsically interested academic students,
they tend to be ‘syllabus bound’ and in some ways may be described as ‘model’
Academic orientation – intrinsic Intellectual interest in the discipline students, in that their essays were always in on time, and they work evenly over
This category of orientation is characterised by students who are primarily all the subjects in the syllabus. The students with this orientation prefer to have
interested in studying a particular subject ‘for its own sake’. They are intellectually clear guidelines as to what is required for assessments and to criticise parts of the
interested in the subject and are interested in studying at a higher level. Most course where there is little guidance.
students with this orientation already had some experience of the subject before
coming to university and so tended to be ‘syllabus free’. They want to follow up Vocational orientation — intrinsic Good training
aspects of the subject beyond the defined syllabus. One student at Surrey University One of the courses studied at Surrey University was a degree in Hotel and Catering
had taken this to an extreme. Administration and, as one might expect, many of the students who were studying
I wanted to do sociology . . . the interesting thing about sociology is that a the course were vocationally oriented. There was, however, a profound difference
part of it is called the sociology of education and in studying education I had in concerns of students according to whether their aim was to get a qualification
become more aware of it in a more objective way. You start to see the place in order to get a job in the industry or whether their aim was to be trained as hotel
it has in society. You see sociology isn’t a nine to five study, it’s a continual managers. The latter were intrinsically interested in the course and were critical
thing in your social life — you are being a sociologist ... You are assessed so of any parts of it that they thought were irrelevant to their future careers. They
you’ve got to do a certain amount of course work... I copy as many essays tended to place emphasis on the practical side of the course and to like the industrial
as I can and do that minimum amount of work in psychology and philosophy. year best of all. Since their interest was in becoming trained, students with this
In sociology I just try and do as much reading as I can and then when I write orientation tended to work hard on the course while they could see its relevance
essays I always bring in much more. But I hardly ever answer the question; I to their chosen career.
am always much too concerned with other things of interest to me.
At the Open University students are sometimes thinking not of a future career
So, the main concern of these students with a dominant intellectual interest in but of a current one:
the subject is to be allowed to follow their own intellectual interests. In the It appealed to me because the reaction of people is terribly important and it
interview, these students often mentioned particular lectures which had fired their is not just seeing the reaction — I want to know the reason people react
enthusiasm for parts of the course and they particularly appreciated parts of the under various kinds of circumstances. So far, all I have is observations you
course which allowed them freedom to choose their own topic, for example, project know; experiences. It’s important because I hope it will help me to
80 THE EXPERIENCE OF LEARNING LEARNING ORIENTATIONS AND STUDY CONTRACTS 81
understand people more. But I am not going to use the qualification at the Personal orientation — intrinsic Broadening
end of the day so that side of it is not important to me.
This category is characterised by students who are personally oriented and
As we see here, this category is characterised by vocational concerns and an
interested in being tested or improving themselves as individuals. The intrinsically
intrinsic interest in the course.
interested student is concerned more with the broadening effect of education and
is using university study as a means of changing. In some ways, the university is
Vocational orientation — extrinsic Qualification seen as a sort of finishing school, a place where new ideas and challenges can be
I’m in for a third (class degree) at the moment. I think I’m better than a third
used for self-improvement and to improve the ability to cope with life.
but I’m not that bothered – I don’t think our degree is recognised that much It’s a broad course, and I think it is an excellent course for someone like me
by industry. So you could say that it is not that important. As long as I’m who wants enrichment of life having missed the opportunity earlier in life.
getting a pass mark or reasonably above, then good – I’m not going to go all
out to do the best I can. I go out to get a reasonable mark.
In the course, and in all the other aspects of university life, these students look
for stimulation and challenge. They are concerned with the content of the course,
The orientation a student has helps to explain the differential effort put into studying only insofar as they can see its usefulness as a vehicle for change and personal
by different students. The above student, for example, did little beyond the development.
minimum requirements of the assessment system. The amount of effort he was
The topics I like I will and sit and read for ever – if I think it will be useful to
willing to make is understandable, given his aim of getting a degree in order to
me then I’ll do more but some things aren’t that useful.
get a particular kind of job, and his belief that the grade of degree would not
matter. This personal orientation is very common among Open University students
For the Open University students with this orientation there was sometimes and among mature students at Surrey University. For these students the incentive
the fear that an employer would not recognise the worth of their degree and this to join the university often comes from a feeling of frustration with their life.
caused some anxiety. However, the expectation of many of them was that the I hadn’t thought about that at all but I felt that I had to do something. I
degree would help them in promotion. thought I was going to go round the bend being at home and I wasn’t raring
to go to get a job. I like looking after the house and the baby and that sort of
To get into this apex (top of the hierarchy) is going to be quite hard ... okay
I’ve got two sets of professional qualifications but need this one to go with it. thing, but somehow I wanted to do something else.
Because in a lot of people’s eyes, particularly management trainers and I suppose it was waking up one morning and finding I’m 35, sort of male
development people, a degree is everything — it proves you’ve done menopause. I can’t sit around here watching T.V. for the rest of my life – let’s
something — you’ve trained yourself to think and express yourself clearly. do something.
For this student, the choice of degree subjects was only important because the The importance of this course to these students concerned how it might change
employer had to be able to see the relevance of these courses to the job. However, them as people, making them more able to cope with life and making them more
for those students who were hoping that the degree would qualify them to start a interesting people. They saw their study as purely of personal significance.
new career, the choice of course was less important and often a hit or miss affair.
This was in contrast to those who were intrinsically interested in the training It is important to me because it is the only thing that is me, and that only I
am doing. It doesn’t matter to anyone else results wise, how you get on,
aspect of taking a course; then its relevance became crucially important to them and I think it is purely you doing it and you getting something out of it for
personally. yourself.
For some of the Open University students, the degree course was seen as a
way of ensuring that they could get a job sometime in the future. This was Again, the choice of course was almost irrelevant and was likely to be chosen
particularly so for women with young children. by means of elimination of the alternatives, rather than by positive choice. These
students hoped that the social science course would help their understanding of
I’ve got nothing behind me absolutely nothing. No qualifications — I’ve only everyday life. The broadening aim was summed up in their response to the question
had odd jobs before. As soon as the child is old enough, I’ll have to get a
job. Somebody said, “the O.U... that’s your best bet”. It’s an education basis;
about their expectations of the course and what they wanted to gain from it.
something behind me. You know, if I go for a job now I haven’t got a chance, Well I expect a better insight into the way other people (are). I think one
no way. And I know nothing except factory work and that’s not what I want. tends to be very biased; you live your life and that is the way it is. I’m hoping
I’m not all that bright but I’m not thick either. So I want something so I can go that I’ll be able to see things from different points of view and not to be too
and get a decent job.
82 THE EXPERIENCE OF LEARNING LEARNING ORIENTATIONS AND STUDY CONTRACTS 83
single minded about things. I hope at the end I’ll be able to converse with Social orientation Having a good time
people more easily without getting nervous.
This category is characterised by students who appear to have social aims which
Being at home it is easy just to go to coffee mornings and just to watch play influence the way they go about working:
school which are all right in themselves but it is not the end. I would hate to Put it this way, I would have gone to university anyway — it was irrelevant
think of myself doing that this year, next year and the next year afterwards. which course.
And also I would like to think that it might make me more interesting really –
I want to feel that I’ve had an exciting day and I’ve learnt something today or The outside activities that I do — (radio, film unit, and sport) are very
read something today and so hopefully enrich me as a person. important. There is a lot to do outside and in some respects I tend to put off
work because of them. If there’s something to be done, I’d rather do that
than something else. Then I try to keep it balanced — from the point of view
Personal orientation — extrinsic Compensation of university education. This side of it is just as important as the academic
Extrinsic personal orientation is seen most clearly where students are doing the side, if not more important, I suppose because you can always study in a
correspondence course or something like that, but you can’t get this kind of
course to test their own capability. They want to find out if they are capable of a social thing and development anywhere else.
degree and if so, to what level. These students are more concerned with grades
and feedback than with the content of the course. This orientation again is prevalent Social orientation appears to be extrinsic almost by definition; as it cannot be
among Open University students. It can be seen as a sort of compensation for the related to the course itself. But students often have aspects of vocational or
lack of further education in the past. Students’ reasons for joining the university academic orientations as well. Social orientation seems to affect the decisions
for this orientation are to do with a feeling that they have been deprived of students make about how to spend their time and may mean that the course is
allocated a certain percentage of the available time and social activities the
opportunities in the past or incorrectly judged by the education system. Through
remainder.
Open University study they hope to prove to themselves and to other people that
Very few Open University students show this type of orientation, almost
they are capable of higher education.
certainly due to the nature of the teaching, which is mainly by course materials
It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. For personal reasons between me sent through the post . However, some students place a high priority on tutorials
and my parents l didn’t go to university when I should have done. I’ve had a because these provide an opportunity to meet people. The university life at a
hankering ever since to discover whether or not I could have done it. conventional university does, in contrast to this, provide numerous social activities,
and at Surrey some students appeared to have these things in mind when they
I suppose I want to prove something to myself. The one piece I have read decided to apply to university.
said it was the most difficult way anybody had yet devised to get a degree
and I thought — well, if I can do it at least it will prove something to me if to
nobody else, and I’d like to. Study Contracts
If we look at what students say that they gain from university study, we can see a
Almost as soon as they start the course it becomes important to these students
mirror image of orientation type. The quotations below, for example, show an
to succeed in passing the course, or at least in studying the course.
extrinsic personal orientation at the beginning of the year and a perception of gain
It is important, yes, now I’ve started it is going to be quite important. I feel at the end of the year which is a direct match.
that I don’t suppose I had a challenge, not ever probably, not for me to have At the beginning of the year, one student said:
to do it myself, so it is important. I have to prove, perhaps to myself that I
can stick to it and do it. It is important, but just to me. I didn’t do much at school – I got to my mid twenties and I started to think –
perhaps you’re not as stupid as you thought. I have to prove to myself that I
can stick to it and do it.
I’d say fairly important. I feel it’s going to be the only chance I’ve got to do
this and if I drop out of it I won’t get another chance, not in the foreseeable At the end of the first year of study, a comment was:
future and by then it will be too late. I think the biggest thing is the confidence and perhaps I’m not as stupid as I
thought I was, well perhaps I didn’t think I was stupid anyway. But I can do
Personal satisfaction, .... It won’t help me with my job, I don’t intend to
a foundation course so we’ll see what happens from there.
go marching off in six or seven years time clutching my B.A. and
demanding a super job somewhere. I just want to do it to see what The following example shows a match between an intrinsic vocational
happens. orientation and the perception of gain at the end of the year. Again comparing
first and final years, we find comments like:
84 THE EXPERIENCE OF LEARNING LEARNING ORIENTATIONS AND STUDY CONTRACTS 85
I think I chose the social science course possibly because the sociology is using. While some students have a way of describing their approach in strategic
more related to day-to-day environment – things that I do. I cover Personnel terms others describe what they are doing without, themselves, making conscious
at work so it seemed to be a useful vehicle. I wanted a broader knowledge
links between their aims and their studying. The links nevertheless are implied
of the basic things I’m doing on a daily basis.
by the relationship which is visible in the longitudinal data and which shows the
If I hadn’t done the course I would have probably missed a lot of what I have consistency of their concerns over time.
learnt in relation to my job in dealing with people – the psychology of work The situational context of a student’s aspirations and the opportunities offered
and that kind of thing. I was inclined to take decisions quickly and now I do by the course are part of the calculation students make about how to expend their
have certain experience in psychology and sociology, in certain cases I do
try and perhaps work out how things are going to interrelate to people – efforts. Of course, students do not always live up to their own good intentions
perhaps more thoughtful than I was before. and they are not always so logical in their choices. There are, however, clear
indications of long term planning and internal negotiation. It is the students’ own
In the study of orientations (Taylor, 1983), the longitudinal data also showed
ambitions and interests, and their knowledge of themselves, which show us that
that there was a logical consistency between students’ orientations and their
reported study patterns over time, including the efforts they expended on different this internal contract is being made. The effectiveness of this contract depends on
aspects of the course. For example, one of the students with an academic, intrinsic good information. The students can only work on the basis of that knowledge:
orientation already mentioned, said: I’m aiming for an upper second because if I want to go on to a postgraduate
My attitude is both instrumental and interest, really, because you are course I will need an upper second for either Vocational Guidance or
assessed and so you’ve got to do a certain amount of course work and, eh, I Educational Psychology. And really, the higher (class) you get for the job the
better, really being realistic. If there’s a shortage of jobs they are going to
copy as many essays as I can and do the minimum amount of work in
Philosophy and Psychology. And in Sociology, I just try to do as much
take the one with the highest degree. (Vocational extrinsic)
reading as I can, and then when I do write essays I always bring in much Whether or not this analysis is correct, the student’s beliefs and orientation
more, but I hardly ever answer the question. I’m always much more help to form a study contract which involves working consistently hard with a
concerned with the things that are of interest to me. strong assessment focus. For such students, changes in the assessment system
Although this student, not surprisingly, did not get good marks, he nevertheless crucially affect their study contract and they may need to change their study patterns
could describe a coherent rationale for his study behaviour. This shows a to take this into account – they may need to work more or less hard. The above
remarkable contrast in strategy with the following quotation from a student who student with this orientation in a highly competitive job market had to work much
has an academic extrinsic orientation harder than the student quoted below who, although he shared the same extrinsic
All the work I do is geared for the assessment. It seems to me you could do vocational orientation, had calculated that he needed only to coast along to his
a lot of background reading but I don’t think it’s really necessary. I mean, if I degree:
was particularly interested in something I would, but I’m not the sort of
person who reads round a lot. You don’t have to do an awful lot of reading Most of my work is to get marks. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is. I do some
to do quite well. I do what is necessary for the assignments and that’s all background reading, but it is still for assessment. I’m in for a third at the
the work I do really. moment. I think I’m better than a third, but I’m not all that bothered, because
I don’t think our degree is recognised much by industry anyway, and so you
The use of the term study contract describes this relationship between the could say that it is not that important. As long as I’m getting a pass mark, or
students’ orientations and the way that they go about working and studying on the reasonably above, that’s good. I’m not the sort of person to go all out to do
course. One student says to herself, “If I want to get a 2i and get onto that the best that I can. I go out to get a reasonable mark.
professional qualification course, I am going to have to put a lot of effort into the This analysis re-emphasises the strategic approach many students take and
course particularly on assessments”. While another student says to himself, “Well, shows why some students need to take this approach while others do not. The
getting the degree guarantees me a suitable job, so I will concentrate my efforts
study contract is affected most by changed circumstances which cannot be
on those parts of the course which will provide me with the best training
anticipated by the student. Particular points of re-negotiation occur at times such
programme”.
By study contract we do not mean the type of learning contract which some as after a sandwich placement or after examination results. It would be foolish,
courses use to negotiate the specific learning objectives students will pursue within perhaps, for students to continue working for really good class of degree when
a course. Rather this contract is internally negotiated by the students with their continuous assessment results mean that it is out of their reach. The
themselves. It becomes visible in an interview through descriptions of concerns longitudinal research shows students making calculations and formulating
and study patterns. Students vary in their awareness of the strategy they are strategies which are much more subtle than simply working hard or less hard.
86 THE EXPERIENCE OF LEARNING LEARNING ORIENTATIONS AND STUDY CONTRACTS

The effort and what it is expended on depends on what particular blend of outcome
the student wants – i.e. on their orientation alongside their knowledge of how
easy or difficult it will be for them to get what they want.
The concept of study contract does, however, capture the differing and changing
attitudes which students show in the interviews towards the outcomes of their
university studies. It shows that for any outcome there is a payment in terms of
effort, and that some students may not have to ‘pay’ as much as others. It also
shows that an understanding of differing approaches to learning depends on seeing
not only their individual learning orientation, but also their perspective and
knowledge about the external context of the course. This concept demonstrates
the need to value individual students in a more holistic way and to provide students
with accurate information about all aspects of a course. It also points to the
importance of the students’ awareness of the impact of their decisions on their
future. Otherwise, many students will make their study contract on the basis of
poor information both about the course and about the consequences of their choices.

Conclusion
We have established that a learning orientation provides a useful construct for
understanding a student’s personal context for study. It encapsulates the complex
nature of a student’s aims, attitudes, purposes for studying. Moreover, learning
orientation is not an invariable property ascribed to a student. It describes the
relationship between the individual and both the course of study, the institution
and indeed the world beyond the university. It can also change and develop over
time. Learning orientation is an important construct as it contributes to our
understanding of what students learn. Besides the qualitative differences in learning
outcomes described by Dahlgren (Chapter 2), which focus on the variations in
how students understand specific concepts, students’ overall perceptions of gains
from studying can be understood in relation to orientation. Students’ perceptions
of gains from study, illustrated in the opening quotations to this chapter, can be
related, logically and empirically, to their learning orientations. The powerful
influences of the student’s idiosyncratic purposes in studying, and of the student’s
perceptions of the learning context within the institution, are already clear.
Many lecturers seem unaware of the very different orientations held by their
students, and as we saw in Chapter 1, tend to blame students for laziness (or lack
of motivation). They thus assume that there is a single reason for being at university
or college – to obtain the highest level of qualification. No doubt that was the
lecturers’ orientation: they almost inevitably had, or developed, a strong academic
orientation.
The research described in this chapter serves as a strong reminder that most
students have a complex mixture of reasons for continuing their education, and
few of them aspire to the pinnacle of academic achievement towards which
lecturers seem to believe they should be striving. Students study in a strategic
way to maximise their achievement but within their own definition of what
achievement means.