Education Journal

| Peer-Reviewed |

The Effect of Student Learning Strategies on Performance and Carrier Development: The Case of University for Development Studies, Wa Campus

Received: 24 October 2016    Accepted: 05 November 2016    Published: 23 December 2016
Views:       Downloads:

Share This Article

Abstract

In an increasingly global environment bedeviled with various social, economic and environmental challenges, the quest for education that guarantees employability has become paramount. The extent to which higher educational institutions’ curriculum responds to employability has been questioned by industry, parents and students. This study explored the learning strategies of 500 undergraduate students in higher education in the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana and the effect on their performance and carrier aspirations. Twenty lecturers and managers of three development organisations that receive students on internship were also purposively selected. The study revealed that generally, the immediate objective of excelling in examinations has been the driving force of students’ choice of a learning strategy throughout the levels of their undergraduate studies. The results also gave an indication that students tended to adopt specific learning strategies because of impressions they have built regarding the nature of course delivery by instructors/teachers/lecturers. Even though almost all the undergraduate programmes’ curriculum involve practical work including internships in addition to expectations that as students graduate to levels 300 and 400, they will begin to apply their knowledge and network more, many more of them rather prefer memorization which they claimed increases their chances of excelling academically. The study concluded that to ensure that students are able to make a full contribution to society, institutions of higher learning need to create more opportunities for students and academia to interface with industry in order to boost students’ self-confidence and to re-orient them towards reformulating their educational objectives to mirror the requirements of industry.

DOI 10.11648/j.edu.20160506.18
Published in Education Journal (Volume 5, Issue 6, November 2016)
Page(s) 174-182
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Student, Learning, Strategies, Performance, Carrier Development

References
[1] American Psychological Association, Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education. (2015). Center for Psychology in Schools and Education. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ed/schools/cpse/.
[2] Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives: Complete edition. New York: Longman.
[3] Anderson, M. C. M., & Cotterall, S. & Reinders, H. (2004). Learner strategies. A guide for teachers. RELC Portfolio Series (edited by Renandya, W. & Richards, J.) guide number 12. Singapore: RELC.
[4] Ding, Yanren (2007). ‘Text memorization and imitation: the practices of successful Chinese learners of English’, System: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics, vol. 35, pp 271-280.
[5] Dunlosky, John and Hartwig K. Marissa (2011). Study strategies of college students: Are self-testing and scheduling related to achievement? Psychonomic Society, Inc.
[6] Dunlosky, John, Rawson, Katherine A., Marsh, J. Elizabeth, Nathan, J. Mitchell and Willingham, T. Daniel (2013). Improving Students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology, Sage publications.
[7] Fitzpatrick, T. and Wray, A. (2005). ‘Breaking up is not so hard to do: individual differences in L2 utterances in L2 utterance memorization’, Canadian Modern Language Review vol. 63, no 1, pp 35-57.
[8] Green, Anthony (2007). IELTS Wash back in Context: Preparation for Academic Writing in Higher Education. Cambridge: ESOL and Cambridge University Press.
[9] Jones, Dorian (2007-03-021). "Turkey: Revolutionizing the Classroom". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 2008-08-1
[10] Kansas University Centre for Research on Learning (2016). Building Literacy skills for all learners. Lawrence: Kansas University.
[11] Knight, P. and Yorke, M. (2003). Assessment, Learning and Employability. London: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press.
[12] National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2000). Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Reston: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
[13] Olson, Marina (2013). What Does Memorization Have To Do with Learning? In the American Conservative. Washington DC: Burr Media Group. Retrieved from www.theamericanconservative.com
[14] O’Malley, Michael J. and Chamot, Anna Uhl (1990), Learnining Strategies in second language acquisition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
[15] Orlin, Ben (2013). When Memorisation gets in the way of learning: A teacher's quest to discourage his students from mindlessly reciting information. Washington DC: The Atlantic Media Company. Retrieved from www.atlantic.com
[16] Oxford, Rebecca, L. (2003). Language learning styles and strategies: An overview. Proceedings of GALA (Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition) Conference, 1-25. Retrieved from http://web.ntpu.edu.tw/∼language/workshop/read2.pdf.
[17] Pegg, Ann, Waldock, Jeff, Hendy-Isaac, Sonia and Ruth Lawton (2012). Pedagogy for employability. The Higher Education Academy, Heslington.
[18] Quirk, William, G. (2000-2011). Understanding the Revised NCTM Standards: Arithmetic is Still Missing! Retrieved on October 16, 2016:2:40pm
[19] Reinders, H. (2004). 'Learner strategies in the language classroom: which strategies, when and how?' Relc Guidelines, 26:1, 31-35, University of Auckland, Auckland.
[20] Richards, J. C., Platt, J. T., and Platt, H. K. (1992). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics. Essex, England: Longman.
[21] Weimer Maryellen (2016). Content Knowledge: A Barrier to Teacher Development. In effective strategies for improving college Teaching and learning. A special Faculty Focus report of the Teaching Professor. Magna Publications, USA.
[22] Wray, Alison and Pegg, Christine. The effect of memorized learning on the writing scores of Chinese IELTS test-takers. In: Thompson, Paul (Editor). International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Research Reports 2009: Volume 9. [Canberra]: British Council and IELTS Australia, 2009: 191-216.
Author Information
  • Department of Governance and Development Management, Faculty of Planning and Land Management, University for Development Studies Wa Campus, Wa, Ghana

Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Kanlisi Kaba Simon. (2016). The Effect of Student Learning Strategies on Performance and Carrier Development: The Case of University for Development Studies, Wa Campus. Education Journal, 5(6), 174-182. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20160506.18

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Kanlisi Kaba Simon. The Effect of Student Learning Strategies on Performance and Carrier Development: The Case of University for Development Studies, Wa Campus. Educ. J. 2016, 5(6), 174-182. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20160506.18

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Kanlisi Kaba Simon. The Effect of Student Learning Strategies on Performance and Carrier Development: The Case of University for Development Studies, Wa Campus. Educ J. 2016;5(6):174-182. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20160506.18

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.edu.20160506.18,
      author = {Kanlisi Kaba Simon},
      title = {The Effect of Student Learning Strategies on Performance and Carrier Development: The Case of University for Development Studies, Wa Campus},
      journal = {Education Journal},
      volume = {5},
      number = {6},
      pages = {174-182},
      doi = {10.11648/j.edu.20160506.18},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20160506.18},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.edu.20160506.18},
      abstract = {In an increasingly global environment bedeviled with various social, economic and environmental challenges, the quest for education that guarantees employability has become paramount. The extent to which higher educational institutions’ curriculum responds to employability has been questioned by industry, parents and students. This study explored the learning strategies of 500 undergraduate students in higher education in the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana and the effect on their performance and carrier aspirations. Twenty lecturers and managers of three development organisations that receive students on internship were also purposively selected. The study revealed that generally, the immediate objective of excelling in examinations has been the driving force of students’ choice of a learning strategy throughout the levels of their undergraduate studies. The results also gave an indication that students tended to adopt specific learning strategies because of impressions they have built regarding the nature of course delivery by instructors/teachers/lecturers. Even though almost all the undergraduate programmes’ curriculum involve practical work including internships in addition to expectations that as students graduate to levels 300 and 400, they will begin to apply their knowledge and network more, many more of them rather prefer memorization which they claimed increases their chances of excelling academically. The study concluded that to ensure that students are able to make a full contribution to society, institutions of higher learning need to create more opportunities for students and academia to interface with industry in order to boost students’ self-confidence and to re-orient them towards reformulating their educational objectives to mirror the requirements of industry.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - The Effect of Student Learning Strategies on Performance and Carrier Development: The Case of University for Development Studies, Wa Campus
    AU  - Kanlisi Kaba Simon
    Y1  - 2016/12/23
    PY  - 2016
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20160506.18
    DO  - 10.11648/j.edu.20160506.18
    T2  - Education Journal
    JF  - Education Journal
    JO  - Education Journal
    SP  - 174
    EP  - 182
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2327-2619
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20160506.18
    AB  - In an increasingly global environment bedeviled with various social, economic and environmental challenges, the quest for education that guarantees employability has become paramount. The extent to which higher educational institutions’ curriculum responds to employability has been questioned by industry, parents and students. This study explored the learning strategies of 500 undergraduate students in higher education in the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana and the effect on their performance and carrier aspirations. Twenty lecturers and managers of three development organisations that receive students on internship were also purposively selected. The study revealed that generally, the immediate objective of excelling in examinations has been the driving force of students’ choice of a learning strategy throughout the levels of their undergraduate studies. The results also gave an indication that students tended to adopt specific learning strategies because of impressions they have built regarding the nature of course delivery by instructors/teachers/lecturers. Even though almost all the undergraduate programmes’ curriculum involve practical work including internships in addition to expectations that as students graduate to levels 300 and 400, they will begin to apply their knowledge and network more, many more of them rather prefer memorization which they claimed increases their chances of excelling academically. The study concluded that to ensure that students are able to make a full contribution to society, institutions of higher learning need to create more opportunities for students and academia to interface with industry in order to boost students’ self-confidence and to re-orient them towards reformulating their educational objectives to mirror the requirements of industry.
    VL  - 5
    IS  - 6
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

  • Sections