Conceptions of learning held by students in the lower, middle and upper grades of primary school

Abstract

What: The following paper presents the results of a study completed as part of an honours degree, where the conceptions of learning held by students in the lower, middle and upper grades of primary school were investigated.

Why: Conceptions of learning are the beliefs and ideas people have about what learning actually means. People often think that the notion of learning means the same to everyone. Based on Svensson's (1979, cited in Pramling, 1983, p. 12) assumption however, that the phenomenon of learning has not one, but several meanings, the author decided to see if this was the case for primary school aged students. This interest was also fuelled by related research showing that the conception of learning an individual holds actually influences the way in which he/she approaches tasks in class, which ultimately affects the quality of the learning outcome (van Rossum & Schenk, 1984). In view of this, and the fact that no research of this type has been carried out with primary school aged students, it was acknowledged that information of this type should be available to teachers of this level.

How: Using a phenomenographic approach, the conceptions of learning held by six students in the lower, middle and upper grades of primary school were explored. Data collected from a series of in-depth interviews resulted in the identification of six distinctly different conceptions of learning which will be described later.

Steketee, S. (1997). Conceptions of learning held by students in the lower, middle and upper grades of primary school. In Proceedings Western Australian Institute for Educational Research Forum 1997 http://www.waier.org.au/forums/1997/steketee.html

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