An Exploration of Indonesian Postgraduate Students’ Conceptions of Learning

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Abstract
This study sets out to explore and model selected aspects of the approaches to, and conceptions of, learning by Indonesian postgraduate students. Meyer's Experiences of Learning Inventory was administered to 105 postgraduate students at the University of Indonesia in 1995. In 1996, Meyer and Boulton‐Lewis's Reflections on Learning Inventory was administered to a separate group of 94 postgraduate students studying at the same University. An initial finding is that, for a Javanese subgroup of responses, some established operationalised constructs collectively associated with a broader ‘meaning orientation’ to learning, in particular a ‘deep approach’, exhibit low values of internal consistency (alphas between 0.18 and 0.51; ‘deep approach'= 0.28). In contrast, non‐Javanese responses exhibit acceptably higher values of internal consistency (alphas between 0.54 and 0.76; ‘deep approach’ = 0.60). Further contrasts between these two subgroups emerge in terms of exploratory factor structures (of conceptions of learning and related effects). It is argued that an understanding of variation in students’ conceptions of learning, and the influence of these conceptions on the experiences of postgraduate students, can assist supervisors and support staff to better assist them during their candidature. Such assistance, while being important for local postgraduate students, takes on an added dimension when students and supervisors are working within a cross‐cultural setting.

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