Browsing by Author "Partanen, Anni"

Approaches to learning is one of the most important learning theory. Previous studies have shown that there are three different approaches to learning: surface, deep and organized. The aim to this study was to find out what kind of approaches to learning students' in faculty of law use and is there connection between approaches to learning, study success and collecting credit units. Also my goal was to explore students' self-efficacy beliefs and their connection to approaches to learning, study success and credit units. Hypothesis was that both deep and organized approach to learning are positively connected to self-efficacy beliefs and study success. The data was collected using Learn questionnaire which is a research instrument used for developing quality at the University of Helsinki. Data was collected from students' in Faculty of Law who were finishing their bachelor's degrees. Section measuring approaches to learning was based on ALSI questionnaire (Approaches to Learning and Studying Inventory) and section measuring self-efficacy beliefs was based on MSLQ questionnaire (Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire). The data was collected by an online questionnaire in the spring of 2015 and there were 108 participants in the study. The data was analyzed using correlation coefficient and regression analysis. The results show that law students have very strong self-efficacy beliefs and they benefit deep and organized approach to learning in their studies. Negative connection was found between self-efficacy beliefs and surface approach as well as positive connection was found between self-efficacy beliefs and deep and organized approach to learning. Approaches to learning were not connected to either study success or collecting credit units but self-efficacy beliefs were connected to both. In future would be interesting to study further how self-efficacy beliefs develop during studies and what factors make them stronger.