Quality of Learning on an MBA Programme: The impact of approaches to learning on academic performance

Abstract

This investigation: first, examines some psychometric properties of the scores obtained on a 30 item short form of the Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory (RASI) using samples of postgraduate management (MBA) students (n=75); second, examines the relationship between scores on the three dimensions of the RASI and background variables of age, gender and prior educational experience; third, tests for any relationship between the background variables and academic performance as measured by four distinct types of assessment; and fourth, examines the relationship between scores on the three dimensions of the RASI and academic performance. No previous published work has examined the approaches to learning of postgraduate business students. Key findings include: the instrument has satisfactory psychometric properties; and scores obtained on the RASI using samples of MBA students are good predictors of academic performance in continuous assessment tasks but poor predictors of performance in examinations and oral presentations.