Approaches to learning and study orchestrations in high school students

In the framework of the SAL (Students' approaches to learning) position, the learning experience (approaches to learning and study orchestrations) of 572 high school students was explored, examining its interrelationships with some personal and familial variables. Three major results emerged. First, links were found between family's intellectual climate and students' approaches to learning, in particular with Deep approach: The better the family's intellectual climate the higher students' scores on Deep approach. Second, along with general intelligence, these approaches predicted students' academic achievement, higher grades being obtained by those students who scored lower in Surface learning approach and higher in Deep learning approach. Three, students from the four study orchestrations reported in previous research (two displaying conceptual consonance:Deep and Surface approaches, and the other two conceptual dissonance: high-high and low-low, in both Deep and Surface approaches) showed different profiles in some variables (e.g., metacognitive learning strategies, family's intellectual climate, academic achievement), worse scores being obtained by those who orchestrated their study either in surface or in conceptually dissonant ways. These relationships shed more light on the nature of high school students' learning experience, and help to provide an integrated view of students' webs of experience.