The role of students’ social identities in fostering high-quality learning in higher education

This chapter introduces the reader to one of the most widely used models of university student learning in education: the 3P model of student learning. It discusses the implications of findings from emerging research that adopts an interdisciplinary approach, strengthening the role of identity in the student experience of learning. The chapter also discusses the associations between learning outcomes, social identity and learning approaches, allowing us to focus on knowing, being/becoming and doing. The 3P model is a dynamic model where the context of learning, approaches to learning and learning outcomes are all interrelated and influence each other through bidirectional relationships that play out over time. Cross-disciplinary research that builds directly on the 3P model by applying principles of the social identity approach to learning at university examines the role of student social identity in relation to how students approach their learning and how these approaches are reflected in their learning outcomes.