University Students' Representations of Study

Abstract

Five women university students' representations of their learning were analysed and related to their on-going adaptations to course demands. Representations involved their goals, working plans and perceptions of difficulties. Qualitative data from students' accounts of their study in three interviews over five weeks were tabulated schematically in relation to Duncker's concepts of productive heuristics. Representations and performances were different for three high and two low achievers. Higher achievers had course-appropriate emphases of integrating and organising content for themselves, and applying it to teaching practice. Lower achievers persisted with self-oriented problems and inappropriate strategies. A case is made for the usefulness of qualitative and micro-analytic analyses of students' perceptions and activities for explaining the adaptations behind individual differences in study performance.