Well Aren't You Cue-Conscious? Cue-Profiles: Old Learning Approaches Revisited

Abstract

Miller and Parlett (1974) once defined three learning approaches based on the way students listened to cues given by teacher about examination and how they used these cues as guidelines for their learning. Nowadays, these cue-profiles have disappeared and the deep learning approach, surface approach and the strategic approach have taken their place (Ramsden, 1979). However, information about the learning environment is missing in these new learning approaches (Parpala et al, 2010). On top of this, a paradox arises. The paradox of clearly stating the criteria and standards and the students focussing on the superficial aspects of learning instead of engaging in meaningful learning (Norton, 2004). This study will contribute to these discussions about the paradox and the learning environment by defining the cue-profiles anew and creating a new instrument, the Cue-Profile Questionnaire (CPQ), to assess the cue-profiles with recent information on learning approaches. This questionnaire assesses multiple scales like motivation to achieve, metacognition and curriculum. The results of the questionnaire are supported with three qualitative interviews.