Is the University System in Australia Producing Deep Thinkers?

Teaching and learning research since the 1980s has established a trend in students' learning approach tendencies, characterised by decreasing surface learning and increasing deep learning with increasing age. This is an important trend in higher education, especially at a time of increasing numbers of older students: are we graduating more deep learners? In revisiting these trends, our study elaborates on the past model by using the revised two-factor questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F). The current study suggests that trends in the shift between surface and deep learning approaches are more related to other factors rather than to age per se. Importantly, school leavers do not exhibit significantly weaker trends towards deep learning approaches than do mature-age students.