Browsing by Author "Teräväinen, Milja"

Objectives. The purpose of the study was to examine approaches to learning, study burnout and the relationship between these two in first-year university students. There has been found three types of approaches to learning: deep, surface and organized. Study burnout usually develops through three stages: exhaustion, cynicism and inadequacy. Methods. The data were collected with the HowULearn tool for learning by the Center for University Teaching and Learning. The participants (n=203) were first-year students of social sciences at the University of Helsinki. Cluster analysis was used for clustering students into learning profiles by their approaches to learning. Independent-Samples T Test was used to examine the differences in approaches to learning between female and male students. Study burnout was analyzed by means and the differences between female and male students by using the Mann-Whitney U Test. Kruskal-Wallis test was used to analyze the relationship between approaches to learning and study burnout. Results and Conclusions. Four student profiles with different approaches to learning were identified: deep, surface, dissonant and non-organized deep approach. Students identified with dissonant profile scored high in all of the approaches to learning. Study burnout among students was low. Female students tended to experience more burnout than male. Students identified with surface approach profile experienced more burnout than all the other students and students identified with deep approach profile experienced less burnout. The importance of organized learning was clear examining the deep approach profiles. Students identified with non-organized deep approach profile experienced more burnout. Results concerning surface approach profile were in line with this result. Organized profile was missing among these profiles. That might be due to the fact that studying in this field is quite uncontrolled. The group of dissonant profile was the biggest group of all which might be because the participants were first-year students and they might not be familiar with their own studying methods yet. Female students are prone to experience more stress and fear of failure and that might cause them to experience more burnout as well. Surface approach has been known to cause more stress and lead to weaker academic achievements and that might cause the students identified with surface approach profile to experience more burnout.