The study explored the extent to which university students' approaches
to learning (SAL) are related to their perceptions of the
teaching-learning environment (TLE), both at the group level
(between-student variation) and at the individual level (within-student
variation). Moreover, the study explored how a general tendency to
perceive the TLE in a certain way predicts course-specific approaches to
learning over and above the course-specific perceptions. The
participants were 147 natural sciences undergraduate students. SAL and
perceptions of the TLE were measured after five courses using the Learn
questionnaire. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used as the
analysis method, which enabled us to test whether the relationships of
the TLE and SAL variables were similar at the group and individual
levels. For the most part, the relationships were similar but stronger
at the group level; further, some of the within-student variation in SAL
could be predicted by the group-level perceptions of the TLE.