Learning Experiences of Higher Education Students: Approaches to Learning as Measures of Quality of Learning Outcomes

Learning environment is a vast area and varies from time to time and place to place. In the broader spectrum, a learning environment may be teacher-centered or student-centered. The teacher-centered learning environment lacks active participation of students in the teaching learning process, and lecturing is a predominant mode of instruction. Here, there is considerably less interaction among students as well as between teacher and students. In this approach, a teacher acts as a transmitter of knowledge rather than a facilitator of learning. Student-centered learning environment, on the other hand, is characterized by active participation of students in the teaching learning process. This paper is an attempt to examine the relationship between students’ perceptions of learning environment, their approaches to learning and the quality of learning outcomes. The paper is mainly based on secondary sources of information and the review of the literature shows the intimate relationship between perceptions and approaches. The findings of this research show that quality of the students’ learning is determined by their approaches to learning; the deep approach leads to better quality learning, and the surface approach to poor quality learning outcomes