1 A guide to understanding your ROLISPS learning profile J H F

RoLIsps student guide. How am I learning? Third revised edition. Copyright © 2008 J H F Meyer
HOW AM I LEARNING?
THE ‘WHAT’, ‘WHY’ AND ‘HOW’ OF LEARNING
A guide to understanding your ROLISPS learning profile
J H F Meyer
Introduction
When you are trying to learn something you are probably aware of the influence that your learning
environment may have on you. Especially the pressures and tensions created by the uncertainty of
knowing what unseen tests and exams will require you to do as evidence that you have learned
something. And, while you will obviously have some idea of what you are trying to learn in any
given situation, you may be less clear about why you are learning it and how you are actually
learning it. In fact, like most other students, you may never have consciously thought about the
reasons behind what you choose to do in order ‘to learn’ something.
It might strike you that a lack of conscious thought and reflection about your learning is
somewhat strange given the fact that, by the time you enter university, you will have come
through about twelve years of formal schooling in classroom environments and probably learned
even more outside those environments. It is unlikely that how you have gone about learning will
have been an everyday topic of conversation, either with friends, family members, teachers, or
professionals in a counselling or study skills context. In school, or at university, you would
seldom have been invited to talk openly about, and reflect on, how you go about learning as a
normal and integral part of developing your skill in learning. So when you do feel a need to start
talking about how you learn you may experience some difficulties. You may not know what words
to use to describe what your learning intentions are, and why you sometimes go about learning in
particular ways that you might or might not feel comfortable with. And it’s not just about finding
the right vocabulary to describe and think about your experiences. There is also the difficulty of
interpreting your experiences. To do this you need to learn some new ideas and concepts that will
help you to understand yourself better as a learner, as well as the likely consequences of learning
things in particular ways. Your ROLISPS profile will help you to think about your learning in terms
of a set of descriptors; things that:
o Describe theoretically important aspects of your learning, especially in process terms, that
you can be made aware of and take control of.
o You can talk and write about, and use as basis for reflection and improvement.
o Can help you to anticipate the likely consequences of learning in particular ways.
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RoLIsps student guide. How am I learning? Third revised edition. Copyright © 2008 J H F Meyer
A first step in thinking about how you learn
There are many factors that influence how you go about learning. These factors therefore also
influence the quality of your learning and understanding, as well as your capacity to answer
examination questions in a meaningful way. The quality of what you ‘know’ about something is
influenced, for example, by the process of how it has been ‘learned’, and how it is organised in
your mind in relation to other things that you previously knew or are learning about. Every
student has experienced the phenomenon of learning something under different circumstances.
But what does ‘learning’ mean, and why is it that differences usually emerge when we compare
our own learning experiences with those of others? Two students who have worked together
through the same course unit or learning task may have differed markedly in terms of their initial
mindset about where to start, and what to do. For you to begin to think about your own learning
you basically need to recognise that learning is mainly a purposeful activity; when you set out to
learn something you have a personal aim or intended outcome in mind – somewhere you want to
get to. This idea of purpose and direction in learning is important because learning can be thought
of as a journey to be undertaken. The idea is that you should know where you are going, why
you are going there and, above all, have a clear idea of how you are going to get there. You
should also have some idea of how you are going to check your progress along the way because
there may be obstacles ahead that can slow you down, or even stop you completely.
When you are trying ‘to learn’ something, there are
three important questions you need to ask yourself:
o ‘What am I trying to achieve as a learning outcome?’ Your answer reflects your intended
learning goal or accomplishment – where you are trying to get to – which might, for
example, be to simply memorise something.
o ‘Why am I trying to achieve this particular outcome?’ Here your answer reveals the
motivation or reason behind your learning intention; for example, you might want to
memorise something so that you can write it down it quickly in an examination without
having to think about it or work it out from first principles.
o ‘How am I going to go about achieving my learning outcome?’ This is a most important
question because your answer to it reflects the processes or actions required, for example,
to memorise something; processes such as various forms of verbal or written repetition.
On the other hand an intention to understand something so that you can explain it to
somebody else in your own words is likely to require other learning processes like relating
it to what you already know, asking yourself questions about it, and talking to other
people to try and make sense of it.
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RoLIsps student guide. How am I learning? Third revised edition. Copyright © 2008 J H F Meyer
Answers to the ‘what’ question might be something like: ‘I am trying to make sense of this’ or ‘I
am trying to cram this into my head for an exam next week’. In learning terms these answers refer
to intentions. In either case these responses may also be influenced by conceptions of what
‘learning’ is, and we will discuss these further on. Answers to the ‘why’ question might
correspondingly be: ‘Because I find this very interesting’ or ‘Because I am scared of failing’. In
learning terms these answers refer to motivations. However, it is the answers to the ‘how’
question that are particularly important because they influence the quality of learning outcomes
directly: ‘By relating things to what I already know’ or ‘By writing things out over and over’.
These latter two answers refer to contrasting learning processes; the things you do to learn.
You might for example minimally learn things in a reproductive fashion because you think that is
all you need to do to get a good mark in a multiple choice examination. But if you know you will
have to write an essay in which you have to demonstrate your capacity to analyse a problem, and
bring together argument, evidence and logic in proposing a creative solution to it, then you will
have to prepare yourself differently.
How am I
learning?
What does
learning
mean?
What are my
learning
intentions,
motives and
processes?
So ask
yourself!
How can I find
out what I am
doing and am I
in control of it?
When students are asked to talk about their answers to questions such as these in terms of
learning something specific, we often see differences revealed in what students think ‘learning’
means in relation to a topic or concept, or in relation to what they think the examinations will
require of them. In other words, we often observe differences in students’ conceptions of
learning and we know from students’ own experiences that such conceptions are influenced by
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RoLIsps student guide. How am I learning? Third revised edition. Copyright © 2008 J H F Meyer
impressions that are formed about the content of learning (for example, what they already know
about a particular topic, or how much they think they are expected to learn about it), as well as
the perceived context in which the topic is being learned, especially perceived assessment
requirements.
As part of becoming more experienced learners, students gradually develop more personal
conceptions of what ‘learning’ is, and of what ‘knowledge’ is and how it is constructed. These
conceptions also shape the ‘what’, the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of learning. For example, some
students conceive of ‘learning’ in terms that emphasise the transformation of knowledge, while
others see it more in terms of the accumulation of knowledge. These two views are not
necessarily incompatible, but they do emphasise two quite different aspects of how an intention
‘to learn’ may be carried out in correspondingly different process terms.
So here we have two contrasting ways of thinking about learning:
I try to make sense of
things because I am
interested in them. By
relating ideas together I
integrate and personalize
knowledge, and thereby
construct new meanings.
I try to cram things into
my head by various
means because I am
scared of failing. I learn
more by just adding to
what I already know.
Now think about this: Both these examples capture what students can actually do in practice BUT
they will result in learning outcomes of different quality. To illustrate, here are two composite
examples of what students have actually said about their learning:
Student A: I see learning as an ongoing process. It is a change in the way I see things,
change of worldview, change of understanding. It involves experience and reflection … I
know that I often alter my opinion about something after I have been exposed to another
perspective. I was thinking what did it really mean, what was it really about and how did
it relate to what I knew. If you understand something you’re able to explain it to other
people in a way that they’ll be able to understand. You understand the actual meaning
rather than the words themselves.
Student B: Learning is getting down what the lecturer says. You’ve got to try to
remember it. I just concentrated on memorising the definitions without paying too much
attention to what they really meant. If an exam requires proofs I will have to learn them
by heart. I make sure I have a complete set of legible, fully annotated lecture notes then
make revision notes from these, leaving out ideas I know already…then I learn my
revision notes by reading through and rewriting parts until they are known off by heart.
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RoLIsps student guide. How am I learning? Third revised edition. Copyright © 2008 J H F Meyer
Your ROLISPS learning profile
You are probably wondering what your ‘learning profile’ is, and what you can do with it. When
you responded online to the various statements about your learning you basically indicated the
degree to which you agreed or disagreed with each of them. Each of your responses represents
just one detail of how you think and go about learning. When you were responding to the
statements you probably realised that some of these details were similar in meaning. Details with
similar meaning are grouped together to constitute what we refer to as a descriptor – something
that describes an aspect of your learning. Each descriptor is made up of five details. It follows
that responses to statements with similar meaning can be aggregated (added up) to represent
more holistically what you might think of as a score on the descriptor concerned. The set of
descriptors thus defined represents, in terms of meaning and interpretation, some of the basic
ideas that are intended to help you to think about yourself as a learner.
A descriptor is defined in terms
of five details with similar
meaning. Each descriptor has a
score that reflects how strongly
you feel about that one detailed
aspect of your learning.
How is your profile constructed? The first thing to remember is that you have obtained a score on
each one of a set of descriptors, and that each descriptor has a conceptually distinct
meaning.
The second thing to remember, and this is an important point, each descriptor in your learning
profile is represented by either a green, red or amber colour. The colour for each descriptor is
fixed; it cannot be altered. You can think of the colour of any particular descriptor in terms of
how bright it is. The brightness is determined by the score; the higher the score the brighter the
colour. Furthermore, the scores are captured on a scale that allows them to be compared with one
another. So, for example, a score of 15 on one descriptor indicates that you think it exerts more
influence on your learning than a score of 12 on another descriptor.
In terms of your learning journey you can now think of each descriptor as a green, red or amber
traffic light; green (go) and red (stop) traffic lights signify elements of learning engagement that
are respectively interpreted as speeding up or delaying progress on your learning journey. By how
much depends on how highly you scored them (how bright they are) in terms of what you were
thinking about at the time. An amber colour means proceed with caution; it signifies an aspect of
your learning that might either help or hinder your journey depending on how you interpret it.
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RoLIsps student guide. How am I learning? Third revised edition. Copyright © 2008 J H F Meyer
For example, a relatively high score on any green descriptor is an indication of strength in an
aspect of learning that is likely to be supporting your progress, while a relatively high score on
any red descriptor is an indication of a likely inhibition of progress. Your personal score on any
descriptor does not change the colour coding of the descriptor; it simply indicates the degree
to which the descriptor in question is likely to be exerting (high score), or not exerting (low
score) an influence as determined by its colour, on your learning journey.
To assist in the interpretation of your learning profile the descriptors are rank ordered from top
to bottom, irrespective of their colour, according to the score that you have assigned to each of
them, and in descending order from high to low scores. So what you see in your learning profile is
a pattern of green, red, and amber descriptors, the pattern being determined only by the score of
each in relation to the remainder. The descriptors that appear at the top of your learning profile,
be they green, red or amber, are the ones that are likely to be exerting the most influence on your
learning journey because you have scored them relatively highly. In contrast, those descriptors at
the bottom of your learning profile are likely to be exerting relatively less influence. Always
remember that the colours are fixed and are not changed according to the score that you assigned
to them. So at the top of your learning profile there may be, in terms of say the five highest scored
descriptors, a cluster of similar coloured descriptors or, in varying degrees, a mixed colour cluster
of descriptors.
Your profile as a whole thus conveys an overall impression of pattern in varying degrees,
depending on the ‘mix’ of colours and the conceptual harmony of clusters of similarly coloured
descriptors – how well the clusters ‘work’ together in learning terms to support or inhibit your
learning journey. Think of your learning journey as starting at the top of your profile. In
general, the neater the separation between the ‘greens’ and ‘reds’, with the ‘greens’ scored
relatively higher than the ‘reds’, the better; that is, ‘greens’ at the top, ‘reds’at the bottom.
To make progress it obviously helps to get a good start! And it doesn’t matter if all the red signals
are at the bottom, it just means that your journey will finish that much sooner!
In contrast, if your learning journey starts off delayed by a collection of mainly ‘red’ signals you
may find yourself in a stuck place, and you may experience some difficulty in reaching your
intended destination. And, generally, clusters of ‘mixed’ signals of equal brightness may also be
experienced as being disruptive to your journey. A set of traffic lights showing green, red, and
amber all at the same time is likely to be confusing!
In summary, your profile reflects:

The relative influence of each descriptor on your learning journey as determined by you
in terms of the score you allocated to it, and thereby the emphasis or priority that you gave
it relative to the other descriptors.

An impression of pattern and structure as conveyed, for example, by the degree to which
descriptors with the same colour cluster together.
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RoLIsps student guide. How am I learning? Third revised edition. Copyright © 2008 J H F Meyer
It is important to realise that your responses do not reflect a ‘fixed’ set of personal attributes of
you as a learner; they reflect, rather, a first profile of you as a learner in a given context ― how
you have self-reported about learning in a given situation that only you were conscious of. The
benefits of your profile to you rest on two assumptions:

You were being truthful with yourself when you completed the online exercise. If you
were, then what you see reflected in your profile should resonate with your recollected
experiences of learning. Your profile is, in a sense, a ‘learning snapshot’ that you have
taken of yourself.

That what you had in mind when completing the online exercise (the learning context
you had in mind; what you were focusing on) encapsulated for you a meaningful rather
than a trivial learning task or episode. If this is so, and you were being truthful with
yourself, you would obtain a similar profile if you repeated the exercise.
Your profile can thus tell you something worthwhile about yourself in a context of your own
choosing. It is also important to remember that this profile is a static representation of how you
responded online to the various statements at that particular time. Your learning profile is simply a
reflection of yourself thinking about a particular learning episode at a particular time.
Because your learning profile can change over time and across different contexts you can,
in a very positive sense, think about how you can improve your profile (make your learning
journey easier) by asking yourself what you need to do to increase ‘low’ green scores and
decrease ‘high’ red scores.
As you adapt to university study, and as you mature as a student, and as the content and context
of learning changes, your profile can change quite dramatically. In fact the expectation is that, for
many students, it will change. It can change over time and from one learning context to another.
For example, your learning profile in two different subjects may be different. For some students
the changes will be relatively minor, simply because they have already developed relatively stable
patterns of learning that are appropriate for meeting the demands of university study. For other
students the changes may be quite dramatic, particularly in the transition from school to university
learning. And, whatever changes may occur in your case, you need to be aware of them and feel
that you are in control of them.
The good news is that most of the outstanding and praiseworthy feats of human endeavour are
rooted in the internal driving influences represented by intention and motivation that are given
expression in some purposeful activity. These internal influences apply equally well to your
learning behaviour and they work best when they work together harmoniously with one
another in a meaningful way. You are presumably at university because you want to get a
degree. (This is an intention.) But why do you want a degree? One reason may be so that you can
get a well paid job after you graduate! (This is the motivation supporting the intention). But how
are you going to get your degree? By what learning processes? You answer these questions!
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RoLIsps student guide. How am I learning? Third revised edition. Copyright © 2008 J H F Meyer
Your learning profile descriptors explained in more detail
Remember that the scores that you allocated to the descriptors are all on the same scale. The
lowest score you could have allocated is 0 and the highest is 20. So when we talk further on about
‘high’ scores and ‘low’ scores we do so in relative terms that are self referencing.
THE GREEN FOR GO SIGNALS (IF GREEN DESCRIPTOR HAS HIGH SCORE)
SDI: Seeing things differently
A transformative conception of learning in which there is a change of perspective; a new way of
seeing things, seeing things differently to others or to how they looked before, discovering new
ways of thinking about or interpreting things.
I believe that learning involves seeing things from a new perspective
KOB: Knowledge objects
An awareness that what has been learned exists as a visual ‘mental object’.
When I know something it is like having a picture of an object; it might be big or small,
or far or near, but it is there
KAL: Knowing about learning
Knowing when learning has occurred through an experience of acquiring personal meaning, being
able to inter-relate further what one already knows, and making sense of what others say.
I know I have learned something when I can link it to other things
RID: Relating ideas
A process of learning new concepts or ideas by talking to others, seeking alternative explanations,
or relating them to one another or to what is already known.
In learning new concepts or ideas I relate them as far as possible to what I already know
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RoLIsps student guide. How am I learning? Third revised edition. Copyright © 2008 J H F Meyer
MAU Memorise after understanding
A process of committing to memory material that has already been understood or made sense of,
that can be explained to oneself, or that has already been related to what is known.
To commit the details of something to memory I first need to know the idea behind them
MWU: Memorise with understanding
A coincidental process of understanding material and committing it to memory in which ‘the
meaning’ provides the structure, organisation or content of what is remembered.
The meaning of something provides, at the same time, a structure for remembering it
THE RED FOR STOP SIGNALS (IF RED DESCRIPTOR HAS HIGH SCORE)
FAC: Learning is fact based
Learning is about collecting, absorbing, filling one’s memory with facts, and reproducing them
when required.
Learning means collecting all the facts that need to be remembered
MAR: Memorising as rehearsal
A repetitive process of committing to memory material that does not make sense, or the meaning
of which is not clear.
I have to learn over and over those things that don’t make sense to me
KDF: Knowledge discrete and factual
A belief that knowledge is discrete and factual in nature and consists of bits and pieces of
information.
Knowledge really just consists of pieces of information
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RoLIsps student guide. How am I learning? Third revised edition. Copyright © 2008 J H F Meyer
DRP: Detail related process
Difficulty is experienced in explaining details, or fitting them together to get an overall view of
something. Details that are focused on turn out to be irrelevant to an argument, conclusion or
problem solving.
I have difficulty in explaining the detail of some things that I feel I have a good general
grasp of
FRA: Fragmentation
What has been learned appears to be fragmented, a collection of unrelated facts, and material that
does not make much sense.
Much of what I have learned seems to consist of unrelated bits and pieces of information
The AMBER for CAUTION signals (HIGH scores on the AMBER descriptors)
Students often ask why five of the descriptors are amber. Why the potential confusion? The
answer lies in the fact that some learning descriptors may be culturally situated, or assume specific
meanings in particular cultural settings. This is especially the case, for example, in terms of certain
forms of repetition and rehearsal which assume a particular significance for Chinese students. So,
when considering the contribution that the ‘memorise before understanding’, ‘rereading a text’
and ‘repetition aids understanding’ descriptors make to your profile, there is a need to pause. If in
your mind they are clearly associated with getting a better understanding of something then the
pause will be brief – just as long as it takes for you to make up your mind. If not, the pause may
be longer because you may in your mind be dealing with an additional aspect of rote or
mechanical learning.
There are also differences in the way that students from different cultural heritages view the
descriptors of ‘learning by example’ and ‘learning experienced as a duty’. These descriptors may
signify important aspects of your personal value system to be observed and respected. So again
just a brief pause is needed for you to confirm that this is the case. But if in your mind they instead
signify a process of mimicry and motivation that is being experienced by you as a sort of coping
strategy, then there is need for caution.
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RoLIsps student guide. How am I learning? Third revised edition. Copyright © 2008 J H F Meyer
MBU: Memorise before understanding
A process of first committing material to memory in order to make sense of it, make meaning out
of it, relate it to something else, or explain it to oneself.
In order to make sense of something I first have to commit it to memory
RER: Rereading a text
A process of deriving meaning from texts, adding to that meaning, or gaining a new perspective,
through repeated reading of a text.
The meaning of a text emerges through repeated readings of it
RAU: Repetition aids understanding
A process of repetition that aids understanding by creating a deeper impression, or a better grasp
of meaning, and that is also used to check or monitor the process of understanding.
Repetition helps me to remember things by creating a deeper impression
LBE: Learning by example
One’s learning is seen as having been developed from the influences of others, by way of their
views or examples.
My learning has developed as a result of the influence of a particular person
DUT: Learning experienced as duty
Learning is experienced as a duty to be discharged or carried out, with elements of being
conditioned or made to conform.
When I am learning I feel as if I am being conditioned
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RoLIsps student guide. How am I learning? Third revised edition. Copyright © 2008 J H F Meyer
Some things to look out for
Many first year students adjust to the demands of university learning quite quickly. For others this
adjustment can be stressful. Students experiencing difficulty in adjusting to a new and unfamiliar
learning environment often feel unable to cope with the seemingly ever increasing amount of
work required and yet, at the same time, feel stressed in needing to do well enough to pass
tests and exams. They will work hard, expending a great deal of time and effort on their studies,
and still make no real progress. They will experience difficulty in making appropriate use of their
time and energy. Faced with these concerns they may resort to simply leaving out huge sections of
coursework and focus very narrowly on what has been guessed at as being necessary to pass
exams. Past exam papers become objects of intensive study for revision purposes instead of
lecture notes and other learning materials. Adjusting oneself to the demands of university learning
can therefore be very frustrating. There may be a growing realisation that comfortable ways of
working at school do not work as well at university for reasons that are not understood. And, in
a short space of time (usually within the first six months) this realisation can easily give way to a
sense of helplessness unless you can make sense of your learning experiences. This is where
reflecting on your ROLISPS profile can really help you!
What does all this mean for you?
Learning profiles can be generated in many complex forms and one should avoid jumping to
conclusions too quickly about how they should be interpreted and acted upon. But generally, one
of the things to look out for in your profile is the positioning of the ‘red’ descriptors. If these tend
to cluster towards the top of the profile they might signify a pattern of learning engagement that is
inhibiting your present learning journey. It is also possible that you may transfer a similar learning
profile to other learning contexts with similar likely consequences. If, on the other hand, the
‘green’ descriptors tend to cluster towards the of your profile it is generally an indication that
your learning engagement is likely to be unproblematic, at least in conceptual terms. But as the
patterns become more complex so does their interpretation, and it is for this reason that you may
be afforded the opportunity to discuss your profile further your lecturer or tutor.
LEARNING
MORE ABOUT YOUR OWN LEARNING PROVIDES YOU WITH THE
OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE SENSE OF, AND REMEDY, POTENTIAL PROBLEMS.
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THIS OPPORTUNITY TO REFLECT ON YOUR LEARNING
WILL REQUIRE SOME EFFORT ON YOUR PART, BUT IT IS EFFORT THAT WILL BE
WELL SPENT BECAUSE KNOWING ABOUT, AND TAKING CONTROL, OVER YOUR
OWN LEARNING IS AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF BEING A SUCCESSFUL
UNIVERSITY STUDENT!
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