PH.D. STUDENTS' EXPERIENCES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING AT A UNIVERSITY IN MUMBAI

Since the mid-1970s, there has been a large number of studies deriving from the work
of Marton and his co-workers (Marton & Säljö, 1976, 1997). There is now a set of concepts
used to suggest a framework of influences on the quality of learning, some of which stem
from the student’s own experience, while others describe aspects of the teaching-learning
environment being provided by staff. There would not be general agreement about which
concepts to include, several probably would attract broad support. Students’ prior educational
experiences are reflected in their conceptions of learning (Säljö, 1979; Marton & Säljö, 1997)
or epistemological beliefs (Perry, 1970; Hofer & Pintrich, 1997), and also in their reasons for
studying and learning orientations (Beaty, Gibbs & Morgan, 1997). Early work on the
influences of the contexts within which learning takes place showed that a deep approach was
related to what students perceive as ‘good teaching’ and ‘freedom in learning’ (choice in
what and how to learn), while a heavy work load was linked to a surface approach. It has
subsequently been established that multiple-choice questions and short answer tests tend to
induce surface approaches (Scouller, 1998), and it has been suggested that some more open
forms of assessment (certain types of essay, authentic problems and project reports)
encourage deep approaches, although systematic investigation of these effects is still lacking.
But it is students’ perceptions of the teaching and assessment procedures, rather than
the methods themselves, that affect student learning most directly (Ramsden, 1997;
Entwistle, 1998 a, b). The effects of different forms of teaching and assessment led
researchers to investigate differences in the ways in which university teachers describe their
teaching and carry it out. From similar research came a set of concepts paralleling the work
on student learning.