Beliefs about Knowledge and the Process of Teaching and Learning as a Factor in Adjusting to Study in Higher Education

This study interviewed 53 novice or experienced students enrolled in part-time courses in Hong Kong universities. It was found that the attitudes to and ability to cope with study were influenced by a coherent set of beliefs about knowledge and the process of teaching and learning. This belief set was characterised in two broad orientations as didactic/reproductive or facilitative/ transformative. Novice students holding didactic/reproductive beliefs found it difficult to adjust to higher education if the teaching was not expository, as often happened with distance education tutorials. These students also experienced problems with assignments which went beyond the reproduction of material, since these were incompatible with their epistemological beliefs. The conclusion is that courses should aim to help students make the difficult transition to the belief orientation of the more experienced students as a means of assimilating students into higher education.