Synopsis

Student learning in higher education has been an active area of research for the last thirty years. The research described key variations in the way students approach their studies and how such approaches relate to teaching and learning contexts, perceptions of those contexts and to student learning outcomes. In 1993, Professor Keith Trigwell and I began researching teaching in higher education from a student learning perspective. Our work described pedagogical approaches adopted by teachers in higher education and how those approaches affect students’ learning. We also examined how their approaches to teaching relate to their perceptions of their subject matter and areas of research. This presentation reviews this research and addresses what implications the research outcomes have for future research and practice in teaching and learning in higher education.

About the Speaker

Michael Prosser is Professor and Executive Director of the Centre for the Advancement of University Teaching (CAUT) at, the University of Hong Kong. He arrived at CAUT in 2007 from the Higher Education Academy (UK), where he was the Director of Research and Evaluation. He also holds honorary research appointments at the Universities of Oxford, Sydney and York. His teaching, research and academic development interests are in the field of student learning in higher education, focussing primarily on students’ experiences of learning and its relationship to teachers’ experiences of teaching and research. He is currently an Advisory Editor of the British Journal of Educational Psychology (BJEP) and was elected a life member of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia for distinguished contributions to teaching and research in higher education.