Evaluating Learning Motives and Strategies of Quantity Surveying Students in Hong Kong

While educationalists can draw up what they believe as a good curriculum for surveying students, the actual performance of students in their studies mainly depends on ones’ own learning approaches and attitudes. Knowledge of surveying students’ specific learning attitudes can assist educators in preparing appropriate teaching methods for their students, which, in turn, can support students in studying surveying programs in the universities. The learning processes and learning strategies of students in higher education have been widely investigated in the last decade, but there is limited research focusing on surveying education. The paper aims at evaluating the learning motives and strategies of surveying students in higher education in Hong Kong. The preliminary results of investigation indicated that surveying students generally apply surface motive, surface strategy and deep strategy in their 3-year learning process. Female students seriously involved extrinsic motivation (i.e. surface motive) in their study in comparing with the male. Fortunately, the negative learning phenomenon was improved among students studying in the 2nd year. Most of the year 2 surveying students applied deep strategy in their learning process, while the students with achieving motive were reduced significantly in the study. Perhaps, the teaching approaches in the 2nd year support students with positive learning approach (deep motive and deep strategy). Further research in the impact of various teaching methods is recommended for enhancing the learning approaches of surveying students. We believe that a positive deep learning approach in university life will definitely cultivate their positive working attitudes in the industry in the future.