Methodological issues in questionnaire-based research on student learning in higher education

Students' scores on questionnaires concerning their approaches to studying in higher education exhibit reasonable stability over time, moderate convergent validity with their scores on other questionnaires, and reasonable levels of discriminating power and criterion-related validity. Nevertheless, the internal consistency of the constituent scales and the construct validity of these instruments are variable, their content validity within contemporary higher education is open to question, and their wording may need to be revised when they are used with students from different social or cultural groups. Future research should investigate the possibility of response bias in such instruments and the validity of self-reports concerning study behavior.