What have we been thinking of? A critical overview of 40 years of student learning research in higher education

Citation

Haggis T (2009) What have we been thinking of? A critical overview of 40 years of student learning research in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 34 (4), pp. 377-390. http://www.tandfonline.com/openurl?genre=article&issn=0307-5079&volume=34&issue=4&spage=377; https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070902771903

Abstract
This paper is a response to the request from the organisers of the HECU4 conference to consider the following three questions in relation to the recent history of research into student learning in higher education: What do we know?, What do we need to know?, and What might we do about it? A survey of article titles reporting on research into student learning was carried out in three key higher education journals, and the results of this were then considered in the context of other, related research perspectives. The paper will first report on the results of this review, and then discuss these results in the context of theoretical moves in psychology and sociology over the same period of time. The trends identified in the higher education journals will then be compared to research into student learning in higher education which is published in two other disciplinary areas: Adult Education and Sociolinguistics. After raising some questions that arise from these comparisons, the final section of the paper will outline some suggestions about ways in which higher education researchers might begin to ‘think differently’ about learning and research in this field.

Keywords
Higher education; Learning; Education, Higher Research; Learning Research

Journal
Studies in Higher Education: Volume 34, Issue 4