The learning approaches and epistemological beliefs of university students: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study

Two studies, a cross-sectional (173 first-year and 215 final-year participants) and a longitudinal (81 participants), examined whether two aspects of the learning experience of student teachers (epistemological beliefs and learning approaches), and the interrelations between them changed as a result of their tertiary education. Between the first and final years of studies, these two aspects seemed to move in the general direction of sophistication ( epistemological beliefs) and depth (learning approaches), in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies and became more strongly and coherently interrelated, as the canonical correlation analyses demonstrated. However, this occurred only when it was the same students' answers being analysed ( longitudinal study). Further, a cluster analysis of the intra-individual changes showed that these were not homogeneous: while the quality of some participants' learning experience did not improve, in other cases participants demonstrated the opposite effect-more mature beliefs about knowledge and learning, and deeper ways of approaching learning. The small effect size of the impact of tertiary education on students' learning experience, the methodological contributions of this study and perspectives for future research are discussed.