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Analyses of teaching and learning in higher education are increasingly being based on a distinction between surface and deep learning. This distinction is helpful for investigating approaches used by teachers as well as student preferences for teaching and learning. Surface learning places an emphasis on memorizing facts and information as well as the relatively passive reproduction of content. In contrast, deep learning involves an intention to understand, the critical assessment of content and relating new information to past knowledge in meaningful ways. There has been an assumption that in the U.A.E. there is an orientation to surface learning in schools and higher education. To examine this assumption, an adaptation of questionnaires used with Western students (the Approaches to Study Skills Inventory for Students) was used with a small sample of ZU students. There are limitations in the use of this procedure and difficulties in interpreting the results. However, the results suggest that ZU students show strong beliefs and preference for deep learning approaches in addition to surface learning approaches. This finding is consistent with evidence obtained from student responses to assessment tasks, where there was evidence of deep learning. It was concluded that learning outcomes for ZU students could be enhanced by employing deep learning approaches to teaching and learning.

The world is a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment (Carvan, 2015) that calls for leaders who can effectively navigate the complexity of leadership today. Students of leadership studies must not only learn leadership information content, but also be able to effectively implement the content and process, requiring deep approaches to their learning (Petrie, 2014). This quantitative research study used the ASSIST Inventory to measure approaches to learning (surface, deep, or strategic) for students enrolled in an Organizational Leadership undergraduate program. Students showed a preference for deeper approaches, though, many continue to use surface approaches, which may lead to shallow understandings and the inability to put content into practice. Specific strategies are provided for instructors to help students move toward deeper approaches.

Student populations in higher education in the United States have become increasingly diverse as a result of demographic changes. As a result, educators need an understanding of the background and characteristics of these demographic subgroups in order to improve the quality of their education. Students’ approaches to learning affect their quality of learning and are influenced by their perceptions of the learning environment and assessment. The present study extends prior research by examining the approaches to learning, assessment preferences, and the relationship between approaches to learning and assessment preferences of intermediate accounting students enrolled in a public university in the United States with a diverse student population. Students with higher deep approaches to learning had higher preferences for assessment involving higher-order thinking tasks, integrated assessment, and nonconventional assessment. Students with higher surface approaches to learning had lower preferences for assessment involving higher-order thinking tasks. The differences in these relationships for subgroups of students defined by citizenship, age, gender, and race are presented. The implications of the results for teaching and learning in accounting education are discussed.

Fishbein and Ajzen's 1975 Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), updated by Ajzen and Fishbein in 1980, is advanced in this paper as an appropriate theory for measuring student's intentions to adopt deep or surface processing and to adopt specific learning strategies. TRA is a decision theory that explains motivation by emphasising the specific processes that individuals use to make choices. TRA captures an individual's motivation by using the concept of intention to perform a behaviour. A TRA model was constructed based on a four‐latent‐variable (deep, surface, strategic and intention) framework and empirically assessed for model data fit. The survey items showed loadings on the constructs of deep, surface and strategic processing under this framework, indicating strong construct validity for the three learning factors. The TRA model was found to strongly positively influence the adoption of the deep processing construct, and to strongly negatively influence the adoption of the surface processing construct. In addition, it was found to strongly positively influence the adoption of positive learning strategies and weakly discourage the use of negative learning strategies.

The purpose of this article is to identify the impact of differing teaching contexts on the approaches to learning of accounting undergraduates in different European countries by the use of a study process questionnaire.

The questionnaire used was Biggs’ R‐SPQ‐2F (Biggs et al.). This is a 20‐item questionnaire that identifies the learning styles of individual students in terms of deep and surface approaches.

Significant differences were found in the approaches to learning of the students in the countries concerned. The differences were rooted in two subcomponents: motive and strategy. Gender differences were also identified.

A major factor in the development process of future accountants is the education process that they undertake. This study identifies a methodology that is capable of comparing accounting students in different countries and potentially identifying the underlying reasons why the quality of the learning outcomes achieved may differ under differing educational systems.

This paper aims to report on an investigation to understand factors influencing students learning approaches in the discipline of auditing.

By using the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students research instrument the learning approaches of students in auditing at a South African residential university were measured on both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. This was followed by focus group discussions to obtain a deeper understanding of the factors that influenced the ways their audit studies were approached.

The results revealed a contrasting view with that presented in the literature, in that senior students were more inclined to adopt a surface approach. This could be attributed to learning environment dimensions such as the teaching and assessment practices as well as students’ perceptions of the workload. Further statistical analysis revealed that gender and race influenced students’ learning approaches at specific levels.

The data are drawn from audit students at a residential university in South Africa; the findings of the study may thus not be generalisable beyond that context.

The study extends the existing student learning literature by adding perspectives from the discipline auditing. It could stimulate educators’ scholarly interest in pedagogic research which could contribute to curriculum and teaching method changes that equip audit educators to promote deep learning.

Personality traits are assumed to influence cognitive processes as well as academic motivation and learning approaches of the students. Based on these assumptions, the present study investigates the association of HEXACO personality traits with academic motivation as well as influence of those traits on students' learning approaches in educational contexts.

Self-reported measures of personality orientation, academic motivation and learning approaches were obtained from 404 respondents in a classroom environment. The SPSS 20 software was used to conduct the correlations and the hierarchical regression analyses. The Eviews 10 software was used to develop the structural equation model to find the inter-relations among the study variables.

The findings reveal the influence of personality traits on academic motivation and learning approaches of the students. Among different personality traits, consciousness appeared to have highly positive impact on deep learning and intrinsic motivation of the studies. Neuroticism appeared to have most negative impact related to surface learning and amotivation of the learning contents.

The findings validates the existence of HEXACO personality traits among the students in central Asian context. It future reiterated individual differences in learning strategies and learning motivation among the learners. The results may help academics and policy makers take appropriate measures to increase academic motivation and select appropriate learning approaches.

This is one of the pioneer studies to investigate the relationship between HEXACO personality traits, learning strategies and academic motivation. Validation of the HEXACO framework will help to understand students' personality in a more detailed and elaborative way and will contribute to the existing literature on personality and learning outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to consider knowledge from a new perspective that permits a rational analysis and interpretation of knowledge as it applies to learning and action in simple, complicated and complex situations.

This paper provides a fine‐grain analysis of knowledge. Specifically it looks at: the special relationship between knowledge and information (Kn_I and Kn_P); knowledge types, the characteristics of knowledge used for different types of work; and levels of knowledge in terms of surface, shallow and deep. Following a discussion of knowledge from the these three frames of reference, this model is used to explore similarities in levels of learning, then it is applied to the complexity of situations, the complexity of making decisions and the complexity of actions.

There appears to be a correlation among the levels of knowledge and the corresponding levels of learning and action. In addition, the breakdown of systems into the classic three areas of simple, complicated and complex carry over into the three corresponding levels (surface, shallow and deep) as applied to learning and knowledge.

This is a new frame of reference for considering knowledge. This analysis can be used to ask relevant questions about specific levels of knowledge. It also enables managers to recognize the scope and depth of knowledge available to maximize problem solving, decision making and action in simple, complicated and complex situations. Further, it permits knowledge developers to tailor learning and knowledge to improve knowledge sharing and conservation.

While the natural expectation is that students seek greater depth of learning as they develop intellectually during their studies, some research calls this into question and even suggests that student learning can become shallower from year to year. The present study aims to investigate the relative depth of students' learning at different stages of their undergraduate studies by comparing second‐year with third‐year students in two statistics units.

A survey was conducted using Biggs's Study Process Questionnaire. The survey results were used to compare second‐ and third‐year groups, as well as to investigate other variables by comparing the performances of: international and domestic students, male and female students, students who worked and those who did not work, and students who intended to register for a higher degree and those who did not.

Significant differences in approaches were found between male and female students; and between students who intended to enrol in a higher degree and those who did not.

Characteristics of the learning and teaching environment, including quality of teaching, were not investigated in this study. These and the possibility of students' mixed approaches to learning depending on the unit of study might have significant impact on the results. Additionally, this study is specific to one Sydney university; therefore the results might not be generalisable.

The findings from this study provide evidence that there is no significant difference between second and third year; or in international and local students' approaches to learning in statistics.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the cultural background of students and their learning approaches in a first year undergraduate accounting program.

While prior research in this area has more generally focused on the investigation of the approaches to learning by accounting students, there appears to have been little investigation into the learning approaches of students from different cultures who are studying accounting together at the same institution. The paper presents the results of a study of 550 students enrolled in an undergraduate accounting program at a multi‐campus university in Victoria, Australia, which used Biggs' study process questionnaire (SPQ) to assess the approaches to learning utilised by local and Chinese students.

The results showed that, while there were no significant differences in the use of surface and deep learning strategies by the Chinese and Australian students, there were significant differences in the learning motives of the two groups. Furthermore, the results contradict prior claims that Asian students rely principally on the memorisation and reproduction of factual information as a means of achieving academic success.

The study provides support for the notion that Chinese students may in fact have a culturally induced bias towards seeking understanding through deeper approaches to study.