Student learning and academic understanding: a research perspective with implications for teaching

The research described in 'Student Learning and Academic Understanding' has its origins in the pioneering work of Ausubel, Bruner, and McKeachie and follows two complementary lines of development.

The first line extends the ideas of Marton on approaches to learning through an inventory designed to assess these approaches among large samples of students and using in-depth interviews with students about their experiences of academic understanding.

The second line draws on a range of studies to explore the influences of university teaching and the whole teaching-learning environment on the quality of student learning.

Taking the research as a whole shows the value of complementary research approaches to describing student learning, while the findings brought together in the final chapter suggest ways of supporting deep approaches and the development of personal academic understanding among students.