The Teaching and Learning Transaction in Higher Education: a study of excellent professors and their students

Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine teaching excellence in higher education by evaluating students’ approaches to learning, and investigating the relationship between professors’ approaches to teaching and students’ approaches to learning. The findings from this study suggest that excellent professors prefer a deep or meaningful approach to teaching rather than a surface or reproducing approach to teaching. Moreover, excellent professors tend to engage in instructional processes that are congruent with their preferred approach, and have values, beliefs and characteristics that are considered foundational to a deep approach to teaching. However, the results of this study indicate an incongruence between the professors’ approach to teaching and their students’ approach to learning. Although each professor in this study preferred a deep approach to teaching many of their students adopted a surface rather than deep approach to learning. Although the reasons for adopting different approaches to learning remains speculative (e.g. developmental level of the students, context of the learning situation), assessment (grading) practices and workload were indicated as influential variables.