GENDER AND COURSE DIFFERENCES IN STUDENTS APPROACHES TO LEARNING: DO THEY REALLY EXIST?

There have been conflicting reports in the literature on gender and academic course differences on student approaches to learning (SAL). When such studies involve samples comprising different individuals, questions remain as to whether these differences are attributed to the course-specific context or sample-specific differences. This study attempted to answer these questions, with the intention of adding to the relative paucity of literature on Asian and science students. A total of 284 Malaysian science pre-university students reading two academic courses in common (Chemistry and Mathematics) were surveyed on variables of SAL and its correlates - Intrinsic Motivation and perceptions of course experience ('CE': Intrinsic Motivation, Workload Inappropriateness, Clear Goals and Standards, Assessment for Understanding, Teaching for Conceptual Change). MANOVA revealed significant course differences on SAL but neither significant gender differences nor course-gender interactions. Mathematics had higher Deep and lower Surface approaches mean scores than Chemistry. These course differences were accompanied by significant and large course differences in variables associated with SAL: Mathematics had higher mean scores than Chemistry on Intrinsic Motivation and all CE variables that correlated significantly and positively with the Deep approach, but lower scores for Workload Inappropriateness which correlated positively with the Surface approach. Taken together, when respondents were identical for both courses, courses but not gender differed on SAL scores. Course differences on SAL were accompanied by and associated with differences in SAL-correlated perceived course and Intrinsic Motivation variables. These findings may help inform educators about factors associated with student learning approach.