ON QUALITATIVE DIFFERENCES IN LEARNING: I—OUTCOME AND PROCESS*

TLDR

Learning is best described by its content, focusing on differences in what is learned rather than how much. The study aims to identify distinct levels of information processing among Swedish university students reading prose passages. Students answered questions on passage meaning and reading strategies, enabling analysis of learning processes and outcomes and distinguishing surface‑level from deep‑level processing. The study identified multiple outcome categories reflecting distinct conceptions of the learning task content. Summary.

Abstract

S ummary . This paper describes an attempt to identify different levels of processing of information among groups of Swedish university students who were asked to read substantial passages of prose. Students were asked questions about the meaning of the passages and also about how they set about reading the passages. This approach allows processes and strategies of learning to be examined, as well as the outcomes in terms of what is understood and remembered. The starting point of this research was that learning has to be described in terms of its content. From this point differences in what is learned, rather than differences in how much is learned, are described. It was found that in each study a number of categories (levels of outcome) containing basically different conceptions of the content of the learning task could be identified. The corresponding differences in level of processing are described in terms of whether the learner is engaged in surface‐level or deep‐level processing.