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.