CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS VOL. 56, 2017 A publication of The Italian Association of Chemical Engineering Online at www.aidic.it/cet Guest Editors: Jiří Jaromír Klemeš, Peng Yen Liew, Wai Shin Ho, Jeng Shiun Lim Copyright © 2017, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l., ISBN 978-88-95608-47-1; ISSN 2283-9216 How Do First Year Malaysian Chemical Engineering Students Approach Learning? Nur Fazirah Jumari, Khairiyah Mohd Yusof*, Fatin Aliah Phang Center for Engineering Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia khairiyah@cheme.utm.my Dynamic technology development and innovation of the 21st century have challenged chemical engineers in their working aspects. Future engineers are required to have high competitiveness in knowledge and skills in a fast changing world, requiring them to adapt and learn fast at a deep level. Consequently, education becomes a crucial means in developing matured learners who can efficiently adapt and acquire new knowledge and skills. Determining the students’ approach to learning as early as possible, whether deep or surface learning, is important to assist the students in their learning. Their approach to learning can reflect their academic performance. The objective of this study is to determine the learning approach of first year chemical engineering students in a Malaysian research university. To achieve this objective, a pre-post quasi- experimental design was used to determine the approach to learning of 57 first year chemical engineering students. Revised Study Process Questionnaire (RSPQ-2F), a 20-item instrument developed by John Biggs and colleagues was used to measure the student’s learning approach at the beginning and at the end of the first semester. The quantitative data were analyzed using pair-sample t-test to measure the mean RSPQ-2F scores. A p-value < .05 was considered as significant. The findings show that the students mostly use deep approach compared to surface approach to learning at the beginning of the semester. At the end of the semester, there was a slight increase in their deep approach to learning, although the increase is not significant. Similarly, there was a slight decrease in surface learning, although the decrease is not significant. 1. Introduction Due to globalization, preparing future engineers who are highly competent in knowledge and skills has become a priority by engineering community of the 21 st century. With so many technology areas emerging within chemical engineering, the changes in the conditions and job environment in the chemical engineering fields, and the demands being place in tomorrow’s chemical and process engineers, what is the preparation made by the universities so that the students will be able to work in the industry? Chemical engineering is different from others engineering discipline because the design analysis occurs on process instead of products (Ziemlewski, 2009). Many topics in chemical engineering are abstract and difficult to visualize (Huang et al., 2004). Thus, students required deep approach learning approach so that they can imagine and visualize the abstract concept. Because of that, teaching principles of chemical engineering to produce the ultimate product is one of the most innovative and continually evolving challenges (Ziemlewski, 2009). Without deep approach learning, the students have difficulties to make connection on what they are learning with their prior and existing knowledge. Therefore, education has become a crucial means in developing matured learners who can efficiently adapt and acquire new knowledge and skills. It is clear that universities are in position to teach the students, but is the education only focusing on the teaching? Are students attending universities to be taught or to learn? The effort to determine students’ approach to learning as early as possible is important to assist the students in their learning. Their approach to learning can reflect their academic performance. Early study in identifying students’ approach to learning was initiated by Marton and Säljö (1976). Marton and Säljö (1976) conducted a study to discover how university students approached the type of task they really engaged in on a day to day basis. The students were asked to read an academic article, and they would DOI: 10.3303/CET1756169 Please cite this article as: Jumari N.F., Yusof K.M., Phang F.A., 2017, How do first year malaysian chemical engineering students approach learning?, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 56, 1009-1014 DOI:10.3303/CET1756169 1009