Understanding 21st Century Learners

Although some previous studies have shown positive association between social identification in the context of university and deep approaches to learn (Bliuc, Ellis, Goodyear & Hendres, 2011a, 2011b; Mavor, Platow, Grace & Reynolds, 2015), the mediation role has not been discovered. The stage-environment fit theory (Eccles & Midgely, 1989) proposed that when students fit into the school environment (e.g., sense of school belonging), students’ affective, cognitive and behavioral outcomes can be improved. According to Zumbrunn et al. (2014) that the learning engagement of students could be improved with the support from teachers and classmates. Under the Chinese education system and social culture background, as the consideration of unique situation of Chinese college, the aim of the present study is to investigate how school engagement mediates students’ school belongingness and their learning approaches. Subjects (N=97) from Chinese universities volunteered to complete the survey online. Two bootstrapping pathway analyses were conducted to test the mediation role of school engagement between college students’ school belongingness and deep and surface learning approaches. Results showed students’ school engagement mediates association between school belongingness and deep approaches to learn with confidence level of [0.0133, 0.0974] without the direct effect of school belongingness on deep learning approaches. The present study indicated those students who have stronger sense of school belongingness will indirectly impact on the deep learning approaches. And the mediator, school engagement, is the most important variable which is greatly impacted by the sense of school belongingness to influence the learning approaches. We are the first to discover the mediation role of school engagement. The findings may help educational administrators and educational practitioners to motivate students to take deep approaches to learn by establishing an interactive, reciprocal and homelike community to increase their sense of school belongingness. Higher education students could put more effort into learning and learn in depth in a school that they integrate it into their own identity.

This study investigated how Grade 10 students in De La Salle Lipa utilized their information literacy skills during research and other research-related projects. An information literacy survey was administered to randomly selected high school senior students. The students’ perspectives on finding and using information, their help seeking ways to find information, the manner they used the library and its resources were studied and determined. Descriptive statistics such as mean values, frequency percentages and charts were employed to analyse the data gathered. The results indicated the study participants were successful library users who were able to utilize learning resources from the library to find and maximize the usage of information, that they were able to seek assistance and guidance of librarians, and that they used a variety of resources in conducting research. However, participants implied a need for help in selecting appropriate information, in using information effectively and in learning the guidelines and requirements of the research process.