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Research into powerful learning environments has concentrated mainly on general influences on students' engagement and learning. This paper considers a series of inter-related concepts that have been shown to be associated with student learning in higher education including, conceptions of knowledge and learning, learning orientations, and students' perceptions of, and preferences for, different kinds of learning environments. At a more specific level, differences in study behaviour have been described in terms of approaches to learning, and regulation and processing strategies. The paper clarifies the meaning of the various concepts, highlights the interrelationships between them, and considers the ways in which they may affect students' reactions to the learning environments they experience, whether powerful or not.

Describes study that compared results of two inventories, one based on cognitive psychology and one from educational research, that measured university students' study styles and strategies. Factor analyses of the inventories and correlations between are reported, and research results from the United States and from other countries are discussed. (30 references) (LRW)

Volume 1 discusses a large-scale follow-up study of the correlates of academic success in 2,595 college students. Volume 2 presents a philosophical and historical approach to studying educational objectives. (Available in microfiche from: Carfax Publishing Company, Haddon House, Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxford 0X9 8JZ, England.) (CP)

Overall correlations between personality/motivation and verbal reasoning, divergent thinking, and creative writing in 1,416 children, aged 10-13 were low, suggesting that classroom climate and teaching methods may affect this relationship. (Tests are appended.) (Available in microfiche from: Carfax Publishing Company, Haddon House, Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxford 0X9 8JZ England.) (CP)