ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that whilst in school-based research there is a body of research that seeks to examine the ways in which knowledge is shared in classroom settings, within higher education there has been relatively little discussion of how to conceptualise the interactive nature of teaching and learning situations. It focuses on a generic individual student, but it was not clear whether this was an activity system for all students in a particular interaction, or whether each student was part of a different activity system. The approaches to learning and teaching research has given a clear indication of how students' and academics' perceptions of the teaching and learning environment are consistently related to the quality of their learning and teaching, and to the quality of students' learning outcomes. "Mainstream" Approaches to Researching Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Within research into learning and teaching in higher education, there are two mainstream approaches to conceptualising the teaching and learning processes.
