Higher education teachers’ descriptions of their own learning : a quantitative perspective

Abstract

In this large-scale study, higher education teachers’ (n = 1028) descriptions of their own learning are examined with quantitative analyses. The study follows up an earlier qualitative study that, using a phenomenographic approach, identified four different ways in which teachers at Finnish universities of applied sciences described their own learning. The purpose of the present study was to find out how teachers’ descriptions were divided into the categories formed in the previous study and to examine whether teachers’ descriptions of their learning differ according to their position, gender and age. The results show that most teachers described their learning as an individual activity. Differences between teacher, gender and age groups were found. Lecturers were represented more often than senior lecturers in the category of individual learning, and male teachers more often than their female colleagues. Individualistic learning was especially typical of lecturers under 50 years of age.