How students studying Media Studies in

the Faculty of Humanities at the

University of Botswana

say they prefer to learn.

By Richard Rooney

A paper presented at a research seminar at the University of

Botswana, 27 February 2015

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How students studying Media Studies in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of

Botswana say they prefer to learn.

A paper by Richard Rooney presented at a research seminar

at the University of Botswana, 27 February 2015

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a survey undertaken among students attached to the

Media Studies Department, University of Botswana. It interrogates the research question:

How do students studying Media Studies in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of

Botswana say they prefer to learn?

To facilitate this, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to 115 students across years

one to four.

The research assumes there are three types of student: A) shallow learners; B) deep learners

and C) strategic learners and attempts to identify how many of each there are in Media

Studies.

The results suggest that the majority of students may be C-type. That is they have a

confidence in their ability to learn for themselves and realise that there are sources of

knowledge besides the teacher: books, programs, other teachers, peers or even themselves.

They believe assessments are not occasions to spout received information, but are

opportunities to show a considered response.

Even though C-type students might be a majority, significant numbers remain A-type and

prefer simply to commit material to memory in an uncritical way. They expect the teacher to

give them all they need.

There are also significant minorities of B-type who know they should be critical, but are

unsure about how to do it. They try to second-guess what position the teacher favours and

give that view in assessments. They feel insecure in this position.

Introduction

This paper presents the findings of a survey undertaken among students attached to the Media

Studies Department, University of Botswana. It interrogates the research question: How do

2

students studying Media Studies in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Botswana

say they prefer to learn?

To facilitate this, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to 115 students across years

one to four.

The research assumes there are three types of student: A) shallow learners; B) deep learners

and C) strategic learners and attempts to identify how many of each there are in Media

Studies.

The results suggest that the majority of students may be C-type. That is they have a

confidence in their ability to learn for themselves and realise that there are sources of

knowledge besides the teacher: books, programs, other teachers, peers or even themselves.

They believe assessments are not occasions to spout received information, but are

opportunities to show a considered response.

Even though C-type students might be a majority, significant numbers remain A-type and

prefer simply to commit material to memory in an uncritical way. They expect the teacher to

give them all they need.

There are also significant minorities of B-type who know they should be critical, but are

unsure about how to do it. They try to second-guess what position the teacher favours and

give that view in assessments. They feel insecure in this position.

The paper cautions that the results may be problematic. When the author discussed these

results informally with some colleagues in the Media Studies Department they expressed

surprise that students reported they wanted to learn for themselves and did not want to be

unduly led by the teacher. Colleagues said that in their own experience typically the students

wanted guidance and were insecure when required to work independently. This would mean

that the majority of students might at best be B-type or A-type with a smaller number at C-

type than the present research suggests.

This raised an issue with the research: could we be certain that students answered wholly

truthfully?

Defining the Media Studies Student

At the University of Botswana there are two undergraduate Media Studies programmes

within the Faculty of Humanities. They are the Bachelor of Media Studies which has the

programme code BMS 220 and the BA (Media Studies) with the programme code BAH 210.

In order to graduate from UB a student must successfully complete a minimum of 120 credits

over four years. The BMS 220 programme requires students to take a maximum of 88 credits

in Media Studies courses with the remaining 32 credits made up of electives, general

education courses and level 100 English courses. The BAH 210 programme is a ‘major’ in

Media Studies requiring students to pass a maximum of 56 Media Studies credits. Students

on this programme can take another programme as a minor. Typically, these minors are from

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the Faculty of Humanities and include, among other programmes, English Language, African

Languages and Literature, History, Theology and Religious Studies (University of Botswana,

2012).

The structure of the Media Studies programmes means that a ‘Media Studies’ student has to

take a significant number of non-Media Studies credits to graduate. In the case of BMS 220

this would be at least 26 percent of total credits and in BAH 210 this would be at least 54

percent of total credits.

We should therefore be cautious in thinking of ‘Media Studies’ students as people who only

study Media Studies, but rather we should see them as Humanities students who specialise in

Media Studies. We might reasonably believe that the results obtained by this research could

generally reflect the way ‘Humanities students’ say they prefer to learn, rather than just

Media Studies students, and it could therefore be of interest to teachers across the faculty.

Goal

To investigate how students on Media Studies courses at the Faculty of Humanities in the

University of Botswana prefer to learn.

Rationale

There is no information about this topic. A survey of students’ attitudes would help us to

work towards establishing a learning and teaching policy in the Media Studies Department.

The work also speaks to the UB Learning and Teaching Policy (University of Botswana,

2008, Pp. 3-4).

This policy is guided by the principle of ‘intentional learning’ which puts an emphasis on

pedagogical strategies that encourage active learning. It says, ‘Approaches to learning should

be creative, diverse and flexible and should benefit from the application of appropriate

technologies.’ It also privileges ‘learner-centeredness,’ saying, ‘Learning and teaching

processes should adapt existing methods and techniques, adopt new ones and adjust to the

learners’ styles and pace of learning, and focus on the achievement of learner outcomes.’

Objectives

1. To investigate students’ attitudes to the role of lecturers in teaching.

2. To investigate the knowledge transfer relationship between lecturer and student.

3. To investigate students’ attitudes to their own role in learning.

4. To investigate students’ understanding of the concept of ‘knowledge’.

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5. To investigate students’ attitudes to the role of assessments and examinations.

Research question

How do students studying Media Studies in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of

Botswana say they prefer to learn?

Samples

Questionnaires were distributed at one class meeting at one Media Studies ‘core’ course in

each of Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, and Year 4. These were conducted in February 2012.

Students who attended the class were invited to complete a questionnaire. They had not been

told in advance that the survey would be conducted. The sample sizes ranged from 50 percent

to 74 percent of the available populations.

Table 1: Sample size

No in sample Size of population %age of population

Year 1 13 26 50

Year 2 49 66 74

Year 3 26 40 65

Year 4 27 43 63

Combined 115 175 66

The research instrument

This research relies on the tried-and-tested methodology set out by Johnstone (2005) in his

work for the Higher Education Academy, UK. In particular two questionnaires have been

utilised to capture information about the way students say they like to learn. The two

questionnaires were combined into a single instrument for the present research. The original

questionnaires were designed to capture information about long-term changes in students’

attitudes to their own learning, but they have been used in the present research simply to take

a snap-shot of the students’ attitudes in one point in time.

Johnstone utilises work of Entwhistle et al and Perry to identify three types of student: A)

shallow learners; B) deep learners and C) strategic learners (cited in Johnstone, 2005, Pp. 8-

10).

He concludes students in position A see their job as one of committing to memory what they

are taught. This is an uncritical operation because they are confident that the teacher will give

them exactly what they need for the exam; no more and no less. Exams that facilitate this

Black-and-white view (i.e. multiple-choice) are welcome.

Johnstone says students in position B seem to be in a less happy position. They know that

their job is not just to swallow information in an uncritical way, but they are unsure about

what they should be doing. Whenever the teacher suggests that there is more than one way of

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looking at things, they accept this, but try to find out which the teacher favours so that they

can be sure of giving that view in the exam. They are beginning to realise that the teacher

may not know all the answers and that makes them feel very insecure. When it comes to the

exam, they write all they know and leave the teacher (as examiner) to pick out what is

relevant.

Johnstone says students in position C have moved from the insecurity of students in position

B and now display a confidence in their ability to learn for themselves, seeking meaning and

pattern in knowledge. Knowledge is no longer black and white, but its interpretation and use

depends upon the context. Students in position C realise that there are sources of knowledge

besides the teacher, such as books, programs, other teachers, peers or even themselves.

Exams are not occasions to spout received information, but are opportunities to show a

considered response and to exhibit lateral thinking. This type of student dislikes multiple-

choice testing.

In terms of confidence, students in position A are confident in the system: the teacher, the

lecture, and the exam. Students in position C are confident in themselves and in their ability

to learn on their own or in a group or by whatever method they find congenial. Students in

position B, however, sit in a trough of uncertainty and low self-esteem.

In Part One of the questionnaire used in the present research, students were presented with

two statements, one A and one C, on the same attitude dimension. Between the statements

were five boxes and the students were asked to shade the box nearest to their view. There is a

range between strongly agreeing with the A statement, agreeing with it, strongly agreeing

with the C statement, agreeing with it and, in the middle, is a neutral position which

subscribes to neither pole and so may be identified with the B position.

In Part Two of the questionnaire, following the work of Perry, four dimensions were chosen

(cited in Johnstone, 2005, Pp. 8-10).

These were:

Student role;

Lecturer’s role;

View of knowledge;

View of examinations.

In the vertical columns the three types of student (A, B and C) have been described.

Results

Johnstone (2005, p.6) reminds us that data are, at best, ordinal and not cardinal. And there is

no way of knowing if the interval between ‘neutral’ and ‘agree’ is the same as that between

‘agree’ and ‘strongly agree’. If we number ‘strongly agree’ as 1, ‘agree’ as 2, and so on to

‘strongly disagree’ as 5, these numbers cannot, with any confidence, be added, subtracted or

averaged to give anything meaningful.

Academic colleagues at the UB will recognise that this numerical approach is the one

preferred by the University for its SECAT questionnaire in which students evaluate their

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lecturers at the end of the course. The SECAT form utilises what Johnstone calls ‘pseudo

arithmetic.’

He states that if the class were to respond to any question in the form of a normal distribution

of frequencies, the pseudo arithmetic would give an ‘average’ value of 3. However, if the

class were split equally between ‘strongly agree’ and ‘strongly disagree’ the ‘average’ value

would still be 3. The same value would arise from any symmetrical distribution of response

frequencies. To carry out this ‘averaging’ is to lose the vital data which can be seen only by

inspecting the whole frequency distribution. Another illogical outcome of the pseudo

arithmetic is seen when one asks if ‘disagree’, labelled 4, is twice as great as ‘agree’, labelled

2. Clearly they are not.

To avoid the ‘SECAT error’ the responses to the questions in the present research were not

assigned a value. Instead, to make sense of the data the distributions of the frequencies to

each response were studied. This showed trends, skews and polarities.

Table 2: Results from Part One of the questionnaire, expressed as percentages

Note: C donates ‘all years combined’.

Table 3: Results from Part Two of the questionnaire, expressed as percentages.

Q7 I think my job as a student is:

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Combined

A. To accept the information given to me without question

and learn it.

0 2 0 0 1

B. To accept that some responsibility rests on me for

learning, but I am not sure what is expected of me about

15 10 15 15 13

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Q8 I think the job of a lecturer is:

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Combined

A. To give me all I need to know but where there is more than one way of looking at things, it should be indicated

clearly which way is preferred.

23 2 12 4 7

B. To provide me with information, but I realise that

lecturers are not the only source of information and that I

can find things out for myself to supplement what they

have given.

69 94 85 96 89

C. To give me all I need to know and to exclude any non-

examinable material.

8 4 4 0 3

Q9 I think that knowledge is:

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Combined

A. A collection of unchangeable facts which are either right

or wrong. I dislike uncertainties and vague statements. I am uncomfortable if I am asked to think for myself. I

prefer to be given the facts.

23 21 24 11 20

B. Complex and by no means all black and white, but I find

this exciting and stimulating. It makes me want to explore

things for myself.

38 47 56 52 49

C. Not just a collection of black and white facts but there are

shades of grey. Things might be right or wrong depending

on the circumstances and context. This uncertainty makes

me feel uncomfortable.

38 32 20 37 31

Q10 My job in assessment and exams is:

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Combined

A. To give back the facts I have learned as accurately as possible. I prefer questions with single clear-cut answers

rather than open long questions.

31 17 15 19 19

B. To answer the questions, including what I have been

taught and what I have found out for myself from reading

or other sources. I dislike questions which force me into a

fixed answer (such as multiple choice) and prefer open

questions in which I have room to show my own thinking.

46 62 58 48 56

C. To give back all I know about the topic and eave the

marker to give me credit for the relevant bits. I quite like

open-ended questions, which allow me to show how much

I know.

23 21 27 33 26

Description of the findings

Q1

what or how to learn.

C. To accept what I am given, but to think about it critically,

to check other sources for myself and take responsibility

about what and how I learn.

85 88 85 85 86

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Between 54 and 59 percent of students across all four years are C-type students. They say

they do not have to rely totally on the lecturer and part of their learning is to work things out

for themselves. However, in year one, nearly one in four (23 percent) are A-type. They say

they should just study what the lecturer says and they might fail the course if they do not. A

further 23 percent remained neutral about whether they should study just what the lecturer

tells them or work things out for themselves.

Q2

Most students are C-type. They do not to believe they should accept what the lecturer says

and not question it for fear of failing. A total of 69 percent of Year one, 75 percent of year

two, 74 percent of year three and 67 percent of year four students disagreed or disagreed

strongly with this proposition. However, a sizeable minority (15 per cent of year one and 11

percent of year four students), were A-type students and agreed they should accept the

lecturer’s word and not question it.

Q3

Students were undecided (B-type) whether it is the lecturer’s job to supply all the knowledge

they need or to stimulate their thinking. Responses were spread across all available categories

and only students in year four agreed by a majority (52 percent) that the duty of the lecturer

was to stimulate the student’s thinking.

Elsewhere, there are significant minorities of A-type students: 28 percent of year two

students, 28 percent of year two students and 32 percent of year three students agreed

strongly or agreed that the lecturer should supply all the knowledge needed. Nearly one in

four (19 percent) of year four students also agreed strongly or agreed with the statement.

Q4

Students across all years are C-type. They overwhelmingly agreed strongly or agreed that a

good lecturer should give all conflicting views on an issue and give students a chance to

evaluate them. Responses ranged from 82 percent to 93 percent.

Q5

Many students are C-type. They want their lecturers to provide them with challenges, but

they are in a minority - 49 percent of all years combined disagreed strongly or disagreed that

lecturers should avoid teaching material they know their students will find difficult. Year

three students (57 percent) and year four students (55 percent) were the most willing to

accept challenges.

Sizeable numbers strongly agreed or agreed lecturers should avoid teaching difficult material,

ranging from 35 percent to 39 percent among years one, two and three and 19 percent in year

four.

A quarter (26 percent) of year four students and 19 percent of both year two and year three

students were undecided and remained neutral.

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Q6

Students are overwhelmingly C-type. They like to work with other students and get their

points of view: between 71 percent and 86 percent of students appreciated this. Among all

students those in year four were more likely to not want to work with other students (14

percent) than year three (8 percent) and year two (2 percent). No student in year one said they

did not want to work with other students.

Q7

More than 85 percent of students in all years are C-type students. They believe their job is to

accept what they are given, but to think about it critically and to take responsibility for what

they learn.

Q8

The overwhelming majority of students in Years 2, 3 and 4 are B-type students. They believe

the job of the lecturer is to provide them with information but that the student must find out

things for themselves to supplement it. Nearly a quarter of Year 1 students (23 percent) are

A-type students. They believed lecturers should give them all the information they need to

know and where there is more than one way of looking at things to indicate which is the

preferred way.

Q9

Students are uncertain what ‘knowledge’ is. They mostly are B-type or C-type students, but

in all years, except Year 4 there are substantial minorities (at least one student in five) of A-

type students.

Q10

In assessment and examinations, most students are either B-type of C-type, with a skew

towards B-type in Year 2 and Year 3. Year 1 students are most uncertain about their role: 31

percent are A-type students, 46 percent B-type and 23 percent C-type.

Discussion

From the results of the questionnaire, the following narrative statements may be made that

might assist the Media Studies Department in formulating a learning policy:

Students do not want to rely totally on the lecturer, but Year one students are more likely to

want guidance from the lecturer (Q1).

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Students do not want to be just led by the lecturer; they want challenges and want to find

things out for themselves. They want lecturers to stimulate them and give them conflicting

views on a topic so they can evaluate for themselves (Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5).

Students expect information from lecturers but they want to also supplement what they have

been told by finding things out for themselves (Q8).

Students like working with other students. (Q6).

Students believe their job is to think critically, but a sizeable minority are not sure what is

expected of them. (Q7).

Students are unclear about what ‘knowledge’ is. A sizeable minority think it is a collection of

unchangeable facts which a either right or wrong. A larger minority say they know there are

shades of grey, but this makes them feel uncomfortable. (Q9).

Students want assessments that do not force them into writing short answers (e.g. multiple

choice), but a sizeable minority want questions demanding single clear-cut answers. A

minority of students want the lecturer to take a large role in deciding what is relevant in a

student’s answer and what is not. (Q10).

Although the research is mainly interested in how the majority of students behave there are

some interesting minority views that could have impact on any future teaching strategies that

are devised by the Media Studies Department. For example:

Large numbers of students do not appreciate that ‘knowledge’ in not a collection of certain

facts. – 20 percent of the combined total believes it is. This does not change between Year

one, two and three, but falls in Year four (Q9).

A sizeable minority believe it is the job of the lecturer to supply them with all the knowledge

they need (Q3).

A sizeable minority think lecturers should avoid teaching material they know students will

find difficult (Q5).

A sizeable minority are uncomfortable with uncertainty (Q3).

A sizeable minority of Year one students believe in order to pass the course they need to

study just what the lecturer says, don’t question it, otherwise they might fail (Q1 + Q2).

A sizeable minority of Year two, Year three and Year four students believe it is the job of the

lecturer to supply all the information they need (Q3).

A sizeable minority of students believe lecturers should avoid teaching material they know

students will find difficult. This applies to students in all years, but drops in Year four (Q5).

In assessments, a sizeable minority of students want only to give back facts they have learned

as accurately as possible – they also want questions requiring simple clear-cut answers. This

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applies most in Year one (31 percent) and continues through other years, including Year four

(19 percent) (Q10).

Towards creating a learning policy in Media Studies

The results of this research suggest that the majority of students may be C-type. That is they

have a confidence in their ability to learn for themselves and realise that there are sources of

knowledge besides the teacher: books, programs, other teachers, peers or even themselves.

They believe assessments are not occasions to spout received information, but are

opportunities to show a considered response.

Even though C-type students might be a majority, significant numbers remain A-type and

prefer simply to commit material to memory in an uncritical way. They expect the teacher to

give them all they need.

There are also significant minorities of B-type who know they should be critical, but are

unsure about how to do it. They try to second-guess what position the teacher favours and

give that view in assessments. They feel insecure in this position.

These results may be problematic. When I discussed these results informally with some

colleagues in the Media Studies Department they expressed surprise that students reported

they wanted to learn for themselves and did not want to be unduly led by the teacher.

Colleagues said that in their own experience typically the students wanted guidance and were

insecure when required to work independently. This would mean that the majority of students

might at best be B-type or A-type with a smaller number at C-type than the present research

suggests.

This raised an issue with the research: could we be certain that students answered wholly

truthfully? Could it be that they displayed tendencies of the B-type student and tried to work

out the response the researcher expected and gave that, even though it did not reflect their

true position?

An additional issue might be that respondents were aspirational in their answers. That is, they

recognised how a student was expected to behave (to be confident, independent learners and

so on) and answered the questionnaire as if they were that type of student, even when they

were not.

These two issued cannot be satisfactorily resolved without further investigation.

My own experience with students in the Media Studies Department is that in certain

circumstances they can and do work well independently as C-type students. I have identified

this tendency to be especially strong in the more practical / vocational classes. For example,

in news writing classes at years two, three and four, they demonstrate independence of

thought and endeavour, by identifying news and feature article possibilities and then

following them through by selecting and interviewing appropriate people to interview and so

on, before writing a finished article.

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In this case, the students would have moved from classes in year two to year four under the

same instructor, who would have the opportunity to tailor the learning experience so as to

guide progression from being the A-type to the C-type student.

My experience with students in the more ‘theoretical’ classes is less positive. Here students in

years two, three and four (I don’t teach year one students) continue to struggle, often unable

to synthesise material they have gathered or critique it. Critical thinking skills especially

seem to be lacking. In these classes C-type student appear to be in a small minority, while A-

types are the majority.

REFERENCES

Johnstone, A. (2005). Evaluation of teaching, a physical sciences practice guide. Higher

Education Academy, University of Hull.

University of Botswana (2008). Learning and Teaching Policy, approved by Senate, 20

February 2008.

University of Botswana (2012). Undergraduate Academic Calendar 2012 / 2013.

About the author

Richard Rooney is an associate professor and head of the Department of Media Studies at the

University of Botswana, Gaborone. He has taught in universities in Europe, Africa and the

Pacific. His research, which specialises in media and their contribution to democracy and

good governance, has been published in books and academic journals across the world.

Suggested citation

Rooney, R. (2015) ‘How students studying Media Studies in the Faculty of Humanities at the

University of Botswana say they prefer to learn.’ Research Seminar, Media Studies

Department, University of Botswana, 27 February 2015, Gaborone, Botswana.

13

Other research by Richard Rooney available online

Africa

Editor: The Botswana Media Studies Papers, a collection of papers originally presented at a

series of research seminars hosted by the Department of Media Studies in the Faculty of

Humanities at the University of Botswana during September to November 2013. Click here

BTV Fails The People: an analysis of Botswana Television News, Paper presented at a

research seminar, Media Studies Department, University of Botswana, Gaborone, 20 March

2014. Click here

Social Media and Journalism: The case of Swaziland, Ecquid Novi: African Journalism

Studies, 34:1. 2013. Click here

Characteristics of the Botswana Press Global Media Journal, Africa edition, Vol 6 (1).

Stellenbosch University, South Africa. 2012. Click here

Swazi Newspapers and the ‘Muslim Threat’. Lwati A Journal of Contemporary Research.

Vol. 5. 2008 Click here

2008 The New Swaziland Constitution and its Impact on Media Freedom, Global Media

Journal, Africa Edition. Vol. 2. 2008. Click here

The Swazi Press and its Contribution to Good Governance. Global Media Journal – African

Edition, Vol 1. (Stellenbosch University, South Africa). 2007. Click here

Suffer The Children – Reporting of Minors by the Swazi Press. Lwati: A Journal of

Contemporary Research (Swaziland), Vol 4. 2007. Click here

14

Challenges in Assessing Vocational Work at a Tertiary Institution a Case Study of Journalism

and Mass Communications at the University of Swaziland Paper presented at the 11th Bi-

Annual International Symposium for BOLESWANA, Quality Education: Implications for

Regional and Global Development. Hosted by Namibia Educational Research Association /

NERA, at the University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia, 6 – 8 July 2005. Click here

Papua New Guinea

Nambawan to Watch: EMTV, PNG’s Only TV Channel, Contemporary PNG Studies, Vol 1.

Nov 2004. Divine Word University, Madang, Papua New Guinea. 2004. Click here

Information for Empowerment and Development Why the Media is Failing the People of

Papua New Guinea. Information for Empowerment and Development: Why the Media is

Failing the People of Papua New Guinea. Paper presented at the World Media Freedom Day

Conference, Divine Word University, Madang, 30 April 2004. Click here

Media Ownership Trends and the Implications for Democracy in Papua New Guinea. May

2004. Unpublished manuscript. Click here

Rethinking the Journalism Curriculum – an experience from Papua New Guinea, Asia-Pacific

Media Educator, Graduate School of Journalism at University of Wollongong, Australia,

Issue 14. 2003. Click here.

Must Try Harder: The Papua New Guinean News Media and Governance 2002: End of Year

Report. Paper Presented at PNG Update 2002 Conference at Divine Word University,

Madang, 5 November 2002, Divine Word University, Madang. 2002 Click here

United Kingdom

News Media and Ideology in the UK, paper presented at a lecture series organised by the

Communication Faculty, Girne American University, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,

22 February 2010. Click here

Male Homosexuality in Britain the Hidden History, paper presented at Association of

Journalism Education, Journalism the First Draft of History conference, London, UK, May

2000. Click here

15

Think Stuff Unwanted: A History of Tabloid Newspapers in England, unpublished

manuscript. 1999. Click here

Protecting The Innocents, a case study of the coverage by the Liverpool Echoof the

Paedophile Question, paper presented at Association of Journalism Education, Children and

the Media Conference, London, UK, May 1999. Click here

The Dynamics of the British Tabloid Press, Javnost, The Public, Vol. V (3), Journal of

European Institute for Communications and Culture. 1998. Click here

Others

Seven Days in March: World Press Freedom Today, paper presented at World Press Freedom

Day conference, Girne American University, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, 3 May

2010. Click here