Sequential Impacts of University Students’ Socioeconomic Classes, Gender, Disciplines of Study and University Education Experience on their Learning Approaches

Abstract

The learning approaches consist of students’ learning intentions and strategies to learn. The ramification of their different learning approaches ends in various academic achievements. Their learning approaches mediate the impacts of students’ epistemological beliefs, learning conceptions, personality, and ability to learn on their academic achievements. Apart from personal variables, differences in students’ socioeconomic background, gender, disciplines of study, duration of experience in education, teaching approaches, and teaching methods produce differences in students’ learning approaches. The cultural and social differences produce specific personal attributes in students that impact learning approaches. Therefore, this study explored the impacts of Pakistani university students’ socioeconomic background, gender, study disciplines, and university education experience on their learning approaches. The sample of this study comprised 488 university students. The sampling technique to select this sample was a convenient non-probability sampling technique. The structural equation modeling approach was used to calculate the direct and total effects of students’ socioeconomic background, gender, disciplines of study, and duration of university education experience on their learning approaches. The Pakistani university students’ socioeconomic classes, disciplines of study, and duration of university education experience have significant direct and total effects on their learning approaches. The variable gender did not cause a significant direct or total effect on Pakistani university students’ learning approaches. The study contributed knowledge regarding factors that impact university students ‘learning approaches in the context of Pakistan.