Tertiary Students' Perceptions of their Learning Environments: A New Procedure and Some Outcomes

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Abstract
The use of student perceptions in improving teaching and learning is briefly reviewed along with an analysis of potential limitations of procedures commonly used to gather those perceptions. An alternative procedure, the Perceptions of Learning Environments Questionnaire (PLEQ), is suggested in an attempt to overcome the limitations. 1249 students from ten schools in five faculties at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane. Australia were given the opportunity, using the semi‐structured but open‐ended format of the PLEQ, to write about events that they felt helped or hindered their learning ('statements')‐ In each case, they were also asked to indicate why ('reasons'). The data were classified into 55 categories of ‘statements’ and 47 categories of ‘reasons’ where each category had a positive and negative dimension. Analysis of the students' views indicate that, for them, effective teaching is relevant, experiential and interactive while ineffective teaching lacks structure, is inappropriately paced, lacks variety and occurs in a classroom that lacks discipline. The implications of these views are examined in terms of contemporary approaches to teaching and learning.