Deep Processing

This topic is part of the ConstructivistGlossary for this wiki. Recall that the description of the term discussed here is contextual.

According to Marton & Salgo (1976), students who read academic articles describe their processing according to four categories: deep passive, deep active, surface passive and surface active. Deep processing is an approach to learning where the student has the intention of understanding the meaning of an article, questions the author's arguments, and relates them both to previous knowledge and personal experience, and tries to determine the extent to which the author's conclusions seem to be justified by the evidence presented. Surface processing, on the other hand, is an approach to learning where the student is intent upon memorizing those parts of the article which he or she considers to be important in view of the types of questions that are anticipated afterward. The focus of attention in surface processing is limited to the specific facts or pieces of information which are rote learned.

The prep assignments in MutualDiscovery (see HowPrepWorks) is designed to help support deep processing, in order to help students integrate the new information with their existing information so that they can retain and effectively apply their new knowledge.

References

• Marton, F. and Saljo, R. (1976) On qualitative differences in learning I--outcome and process, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 46, pp. 4-11.