students\' approaches to learning superficial, strategic and deep

Aims: Approaches to learning are series of mental activities of learners during study which used for more effective receiving, organizing and recalling information. The purpose of this study was to study superficial, strategic and deep approaches to learning among students. Instrument & Methods: In this descriptive survey which is done in 2012-13 academic year, 380 students of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences (152 males and 228 females) were selected using a stratified sampling method based on gender. The instrument of this research was the Tait et al revised ASSIST questionnaire. SPSS 20 was used to analyze data by single variant T, independent T, Analysis of Variance, and Bonferroni Post Hoc tests. Findings: 179 of students (47.1%) were using strategic approach, 133 students (35.0%) were using superficial approach and only 68 (17.9%) were using deep approach. There was a significant difference in the deep (p<0.001) and strategic (p<0.005) approaches between average scores of male and female students. Among the age groups, there was also a significant difference in the superficial superficial (p<0.01) and deep approach (p<0.005). Conclusion: More than 80% of students use superficial and strategic approaches that are memory-based and result-oriented. In contrast, students are less oriented to use deep approach to learning.