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Two studies in Scotland used similar questionnaires to examine relationships between approaches to studying and students' preferences for different types of learning environments. The first study also examined the relationship with students' evaluations of their courses, while the second included reasons for choosing that course (educational orientation). In the first study, a questionnaire was designed containing a shortened version of the Approaches to Studying Inventory and administered to 123 first-year engineering students. A similar questionnaire was administered in the second study to 153 first-year psychology students. Maximum likelihood factor analysis explored the dimensions of interest. For failing students there was a substantial incoherence between their approaches to studying and their patterns of preference for different kinds of teaching and courses. Students who adopted deep or surface approaches to studying also preferred methods of teaching and assessing that encouraged their own approaches to learning. Consequently, there were differences in the types of teaching students would rate highly. Students are likely to define good teaching differently based on their approaches to studying. Four tables present study findings. (SLD)

Drawing on a number of studies of college student learning, this review concludes that students in different disciplines develop characteristic ways of learning based on their perceptions of what is required in their academic work. Within a discipline, effective learning involves an interplay between the characteristics of the student and the learning environment provided by teacher and department. (Author/MSE)