The modelling of 'dissonant' study orchestration in higher education

Attention is drawn in the present study to atypical patterns of contextuali sed learning engagement that are often difficult to interpret because, at f ace value, they exhibit varying degrees of conceptual dissonance. Against a summary of the practical and methodological problems associated with resea rching the phenomenon of 'dissonance', a review is presented of how it may manifest itself in differing contexts, and with what implied or observed as sociated effects. The empirical question of how 'dissonance' may be interpr eted and modelled is addressed and it is argued that, in general, the pheno menon cart be naturally accommodated within an interference observed model of student learning by virtue of violations of defined 'conceptual boundari es within the model at an individual, or subgroup, response level. An examp le of an observed interference model of student learning in the form of a c ommon factor model is introduced and is then further used to illustrate how such conceptual violations may occur in practice.