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Findings suggest strategic learners prioritize grade procurement over process, weakening their relationship with formative assessment and feedback. Future work targets learning environments that support comfort with mistakes and contingencies as opportunities.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-road-less-travelled-pathways-from-passivity-to-agency-in-student-learning/598735/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-road-less-travelled-pathways-from-passivity-to-agency-in-student-learning/598735.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"awa","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":26},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",{"@type":56,"mainEntity":57},"FAQPage",[58,64,68],{"name":59,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":61},"What is the study examining and in which courses?","Question",{"text":62,"@type":63},"The study examines fourth-year undergraduate students’ responses to reflective writing prompts tied to practical experiences in two capstone courses.","Answer",{"name":65,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":66},"How is the data analyzed in the research?",{"text":67,"@type":63},"Findings are derived from three levels of analysis using a recursive process of description, reduction, and interpretation.",{"name":69,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":70},"What do the authors conclude about strategic learners and formative assessment?",{"text":71,"@type":63},"Strategic learners focus on grade procurement over process, leading to unhelpful relationships with formative assessment and feedback, treating formative elements like mini summative assessments.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":74,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":76,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":78,"site_id":7},598735,1792630977,{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":82},"success",[83,87,91,95,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":84,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":88,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":131},{"doc_id":78,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":26,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":111,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":117},3985747858093,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","The Road Less Travelled? Pathways   \nfrom Passivity to Agency in Student 2015 CELT Vol. VIII  \n[celt. uwindsor.ca](celt. uwindsor.ca)  \n[www.stlhe.ca](www.stlhe.ca)  \nLearning   \nGail Frost and Maureen Connolly  \nBrock University  \nThis qualitative study examined fourth-year undergraduate students’ responses to reflective writing prompts andjournal entries related to their practical experiences in two capstone courses, both based in SBL/PBL pedagogies. We examined their ‘strategic’ approaches to learning that make engagement with subject matter and learning processes more instrumental than meaningfully grasped and applied. Three levels of analysis were used in a recursive process of description, reduction, and interpretation, and the results were added to our previous work examining student responses to reflective activities that foster deep learning. Our provisional conclusions are that strategic learners are invested in a mastery relationship with subject matter that makes grade procurement the evidence of this mastery and this shifts their focus to product over process as an obvious consequence. This disconnect from process leads students to an unhelpful relationship with formative assessment and feedback. They tend to wrestle with the formative elements and see them as mini summative assessments or quasi final products, rather than the necessarily perplexing engagement that leads to the imaginative generation of possibilities and recursive building and refining of ideas and processes. Our future research will focus on environments that encourage more comfort with mistakes and contingencies as learning opportunities.  \nIntroduction  \nThis article reports on a qualitative study  \nexamining fourth-year undergraduate students’responses to reflective writing prompts related to their practical experiences in two capstone courses. Our findings were derived from three levels of analysis utilizing a recursive process of description, reduction, and interpretation (Lanigan, 1988) and build on our previous work examining student responses to reflective activities that foster deep learning (Frost, Connolly, & Lappano, 2014) . While we have seen  \nevidence of deep learning in a percentage of students, it is the superficial and strategic learners who compelled our interventions for the present project. Specifically, we wanted to address the strategic approaches that make engagement with subject matter and learning processes more instrumental than meaningfully grasped and applied. This disconnection from subject matter and actual engagement in professional practice is troubling given the fields in which our students will be employed  \n(e.g., health care and human services delivery, teaching, coaching, therapeutic applications, clinical kinesiology) .  \nService-based learning courses give physical education and kinesiology students a chance to apply the theory they are learning in their degree programs in practical contexts before they graduate. Our students work with actual clients, either designing and implementing physical activity programs with adults or engaging with children and youth with various disabilities. Our goal is that they learn not only the appropriate professional and ethical behaviour necessary for their future careers but, more importantly, how to think creatively and respond to changing circumstances. Mezirow (2000) has suggested that this type of learning should include an understanding of context, critical reflection on assumptions, and validation of meaning by assessing reasons.  \nOur theoretical premises for this paper reside in the work of Paulo Freire (1987) and Lev Vygotsky (1962), as well as the more recent work of Noel Entwistle and Paul Ramsden (1983) . Freire claimed that learners alienated from their own forms of expression also experience alienation from the larger culture and from their sense of themselves as cultural agents. This alienation is painfully evident when students attempt to use their previous","cbCaifqYjUepEAu6","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifqYjUepEAu6","pdf",146225,"English","# Introduction\n## Research focus and analytical approach\n## Service-based learning context\n## Theoretical premises and learning alienation\n## Deep learning, meaningful engagement, and threshold concepts","[{\"question\":\"What is the study examining and in which courses?\",\"answer\":\"The study examines fourth-year undergraduate students’ responses to reflective writing prompts tied to practical experiences in two capstone courses.\"},{\"question\":\"How is the data analyzed in the research?\",\"answer\":\"Findings are derived from three levels of analysis using a recursive process of description, reduction, and interpretation.\"},{\"question\":\"What do the authors conclude about strategic learners and formative assessment?\",\"answer\":\"Strategic learners focus on grade procurement over process, leading to unhelpful relationships with formative assessment and feedback, treating formative elements like mini summative assessments.\"}]","The Road Less Travelled? - Pathways from Passivity to Agency in Student Learning | PDF",1792087484]