Consonance and dissonance in students' learning experience

This investigation examined, in 1012 secondary students, both consonant and dissonant response patterns in approaches to learning (evaluated using the LPQ questionnaire; [Biggs, J. (1987). Learning process questionnaire. Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research]) as well as in learning conceptions and learning strategies (examined using an open task). The results of the analyses of students' learning experience clearly support three new findings. First, the research encountered two kinds of consonance (basic and complex) and two kinds of dissonance (negative and positive) in students' ways of linking how learning appears to them, and what strategies they use to learn. Second, it was shown that these patterns of response were significantly related to performance, better academic results being obtained by the Positive Dissonance and Complex Consonance groups. Third, these patterns and learning approach combinations (study orchestrations) were found to be associated with one another; in dissonant study orchestrations the patterns of relationships among conceptions of learning and strategies became incoherent.