High school students educational usage of Internet and their learning approaches

This study examines the Internet usage of high school students for educational needs in respect to their learning approaches. The “learning approach” categorizes individuals as ‘surface learners’ and ‘deep learners’. Surface learners mainly choose to rehearse and memorize the course material they work on and they acquire the information they need to learn in a disconnected way, by memorization. On the other hand, deep learners want to grasp the meaning of the course material. In the study, adapted Turkish version of Learning Process Questionnaire (LPQ) was used to determine high school students’ learning approaches. 921 secondary school students were subjected and the Cronbach alpha values were 0.73 for a deep approach and 0.66 for a surface approach. According to the data obtained, surface learners use the Internet more when compared to deep learners, though they use it for non-instructional purposes. The ratios of the Internet use of deep learners for educational needs are higher when compared to those of surface learners. Ratios of the Internet use for educational needs by the students who are given assignments requiring the use of the Internet are higher.