Relationships between Hong Kong students’ perceptions
of the learning environment and their learning patterns
in post-secondary education
Dennis C. S. Law
•
Jan H. F. Meyer
Published online: 20 August 2010
Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
Abstract The present study aims to analyse the complex relationships between the rel-
evant constructs of students’ demographic background, perceptions, learning patterns and
(proxy measures of) learning outcomes in order to delineate the possible direct, indirect, or
spurious effects among them. The analytical methodology is substantively framed against
the studies of Richardson (British Journal of Educational Psychology 76:867–893, 2006,
Higher Education 54:385–416, 2007) that utilised a regression-based methodology to infer
the possible causal relationships among the relevant learning constructs. A composite
research instrument, written in Chinese and derived from the Inventory of Learning Styles
(ILS) and the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ), was used to collect students’
feedback on their perceptions of the learning environment and their learning patterns.
Valid responses were obtained from 1,572 students studying at six institutions in the post-
secondary education sector in Hong Kong, a new response-context for both the CEQ and
the ILS. In adapting the research instruments to a new Chinese response-context, the
findings are generally consistent with those reported in other published works (e.g. no
relationship between students’ demographic background and their satisfaction with the
programme, and a significant relationship between students’ exhibition of undirected
learning patterns and low expected performance), but there are also some noteworthy
discrepancies. The findings therefore buttress the confidence with which an ILS-based
General Theoretical Model of student learning, adapted from Richardson (British Journal
of Educational Psychology 76:867–893, 2006, Higher Education 54:385–416, 2007), may
be used to conceptualise and interpret the dynamics of variation across different cultural
response-contexts. While the CEQ provides some valuable complementary insights, it is an
instrument that requires further development in the response-context of the present study.
D. C. S. Law (&)
Caritas Francis Hsu College, Hong Kong, China
e-mail: dlaw@cihe.edu.hk
J. H. F. Meyer
Durham University, Durham, UK
e-mail: j.h.f.meyer@durham.ac.uk
123
High Educ (2011) 62:27–47
DOI 10.1007/s10734-010-9363-1