Discourses about the value of effort and hard work are prevalent and powerful in many western societies and educational contexts. Yet, paradoxically, in these same contexts effortless achievement is often lauded, and in certain discourses is heralded as the pinnacle of success and a sign of genius. In this paper we interrogate discourses about…

Many recent studies of student learning are grounded in a theoretical framework which is experiential and describes learning from the learner's perspective or "from the inside". A research project on student learning in the Open University has followed a group of 30 students through their first year of university study. Students were…

Describes an investigation of student approaches to study and briefly relates the results to the need for instructional improvement. Open University students in England were interviewed to determine their study habits and two approaches were identified: deep-level (relating ideas and constructing meaning from learning materials) and surface-level…