Student Learning

Teaching is about engendering learning. This chapter looks at some of the common learning theories that have been applied to higher education, starting with the ‘approaches to learning’ research described next. This has been the most influential theoretical approach in changing learning and teaching in higher education over the last thirty years. This chapter then looks at socio-cultural approaches to student learning, which explore the interaction between learning and the social and cultural environment, focusing in particular on learning as a process of induction into a ‘community of practice’ (Wenger, 1998)