The effect of perceptions of the teaching-learning environment on the variation in approaches to learning – Between-student differences and within-student variation

Abstract The study explored the extent to which university students' approaches to learning (SAL) are related to their perceptions of the teaching-learning environment (TLE), both at the group level (between-student variation) and at the individual level (within-student variation). Moreover, the study explored how a general tendency to perceive the TLE in a certain way predicts course-specific approaches to learning over and above the course-specific perceptions. The participants were 147 natural sciences undergraduate students. SAL and perceptions of the TLE were measured after five courses using the Learn questionnaire. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used as the analysis method, which enabled us to test whether the relationships of the TLE and SAL variables were similar at the group and individual levels. For the most part, the relationships were similar but stronger at the group level; further, some of the within-student variation in SAL could be predicted by the group-level perceptions of the TLE.