Regulating approaches to learning: Testing learning strategy convergences across a year at university

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Higher Education Studies
• Learning Sciences

Background:

• Contemporary higher education models integrate processing and regulation strategies for student learning.
• Research has extensively explored the convergence of these strategies over time.
• The longitudinal stability and variability of student learning strategy use remain under-researched yet crucial for academic support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and empirically test a person-centred longitudinal model of learning strategies.
• To examine learning strategy transitions throughout the first-year university experience.

Main Methods:

• A longitudinal study involving 933 Japanese university students.
• Data collected via surveys on learning approaches (deep/surface) and regulation (self/external/lack) at the start and end of the first year.
• Latent profile transition analysis (LPTA) was employed after invariance and cross-sectional testing.

Main Results:

• A four-group model emerged: Low Quality, Low Quantity, Average, and High Quantity strategy users.
• Group stability varied, with Average (93%) and Low Quality (90%) showing high retention, while High Quantity (72%) and Low Quantity (40%) were more variable.
• Significant transitions indicated shifts between adaptive and maladaptive processing and regulation strategies.

Conclusions:

• Person-centred longitudinal analysis revealed diverse learning transition patterns in first-year university students.
• The stability of students' strategy use was contingent on their initial subgroup classification.
• Strong interconnections were found between changes in processing and regulation strategies during the first academic year.