ABSTRACT
Considerable time and attention has been spent understanding and theorising aspects of learning in higher education (Richardson 2000), yet predicting student learning still remains difficult. There has been some criticism of the student learning literature in its failure to adequately demonstrate how learning can be improved (Gibbs 2003). This appears to stem from uncertainty about what factors, or combination of factors, need to be investigated in order to predict student learning; see also Vanthournout et al. (this volume). Richardson's (2000) review has provided a corner stone in assembling and critiquing student learning research. It encompasses conceptions of learning, approaches to learning, orientations to study, and a variety of ways in which to measure these such as study processes, approaches to study, and learning styles. He concluded that all educational research ‘needs to be subjected to a continuing process of critical scrutiny and evaluation’ (p. 174). It is in this spirit that this chapter considers what factors might influence student learning and how interrelationships between them might bemodelled in order to examine this in a holistic manner. The model is drawn from Price and Richardson's (2004) 4P model that considered factors in improving student learning. In this chapter I argue that the model can also be used to make predictions about student learning. It is structured by presenting the model and then illustrating the interrelationships by reviewing student learning, the influence of context, teaching, and the interrelationship of all of these with student learning outcomes. The chapter begins by establishing why such an approach is necessary.
