A validity study of Biggs' three‐factor model of learning approaches: a confirmatory factor analysis employing a Canadian sample

A total of 205 high school students (grades 10,11,12) with approximately equal numbers of males (N=104; 50.7 percent) and females (N=101; 49.3 percent) responded to the Learning Process Questionnaire. The resulting data were fit to a three‐factor model of learning motives and strategies that was theoretically derived from Biggs' learning process model and based on some previous empirical evidence. The resulting fit of the data to the model was very good (comparative fit index = .97; residual mean square =. 17), thus providing strong support for the proposed model. It is concluded that three basic motives (surface, deep, achieving) and three basic strategies (surface, deep, achieving) indeed identify the three theoretically proposed endogenous approaches of surface, deep and achieving. 1994 The British Psychological Society